Detection of intramyocardial scroll waves using absorptive transillumination imaging.

Optical imaging using voltage-sensitive dyes has become an important tool for studying vortex-like electrical waves in the heart. Such waves, known as spiral or scroll waves, can spontaneously form in pathological ventricular myocardium, causing ventricular fibrillation and sudden death. Until recently, observations of scroll waves were limited to their surface manifestations, thus providing little information about the shape and location of their organizing center, the filament. We use computer modeling to assess the feasibility of visualizing filaments using dynamic transillumination imaging in conjunction with near-IR voltage-sensitive absorptive dyes (absorptive transillumination). We simulate transillumination signals produced by the intramural scroll waves in a realistic slab of ventricular tissue with trabeculated endocardial surface. The computations use a detailed ionic model of electrical excitation (LRd) coupled to a photon transport model for cardiac tissue. Our simulations show that dynamic absorptive transillumination data, with subsequent processing involving either amplitude maps, time-space plots, or power-of-the-dominant-frequency maps, can be used to reliably detect intramural scroll waves through the whole thickness (approximately 10 mm) of the ventricular wall. Neither variations in the thickness of the myocardial wall nor noise impeded the detection of intramural filaments.

Dynamics of bound states of same-chirality spiral waves.

We describe the dynamics of bound states of same-chirality spirals in a generic numerical model of an excitable medium. For each bound state, we analyze its tip trajectory patterns and determine its characteristic frequencies. We report two previously unidentified bound states: for spiral pairs, a state that exhibits alternating cycles of small and large distances between collisions (A2); for triplets, the first example of a meandering bound state (M3). In parameter space, A2 lies in between the previously described oscillating pairs (O2) and master-slave pairs (MS). We present numerical evidence that the transition O2-->A2 occurs via a supercritical period-doubling bifurcation, while the transition A2-->MS occurs via a symmetry breaking secondary Hopf bifurcation. A classification of all regimes according to dynamical systems theory exposes the wealth of phenomena exhibited by multiarmed spiral waves.

Asymmetric bound states of spiral pairs in excitable media.

We present a stable regime of asymmetric bound states for spiral pairs in a generic numerical model of a homogeneous excitable medium. In this regime, one spiral tip (slave) rotates around the other (master). Master-slave dynamics occur for both same-chirality and opposite-chirality spiral pairs in a range of parameters and initial conditions. We study the dependency of master-slave characteristics on the medium's excitation threshold and present a phenomenological model that accounts for the qualitative properties of master-slave dynamics.