Elsevier

American Heart Journal

Volume 67, Issue 2, February 1964, Pages 200-220
American Heart Journal

Experimental and laboratory report
A computer model of atrial fibrillation

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Abstract

A mathematical model of impulse propagation in a nonuniform two-dimensional system was prepared as a program for a digital computer. The model exhibited self-sustained turbulent activity having many similarities to atrial fibrillation. The activity was not the result of fixed impulse generators or circuits, but was sustained by irregular drifting eddies which varied in position, number, and size. Increasing the refractory periods while retaining nonuniformity resulted in arrest of activity. Restoration of absolute uniformity resulted in periodic activity characterized by fixed re-entrant circuits without obstacles. Reduction of the area of the model altered the self-sustained activity in the direction of arrest, and the creation of internal obstacles resulted in a periodic circus movement flutter. The behavior of the model suggests the formulation of a “fibrillation” number, similar in concept to the Reynolds number related to turbulence in fluid flow.

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Cited by (0)

Supported in part by grants from the New York State Heart Assembly (Oneida and Onondaga County chapters), the American Heart Association, and the National Heart Institute.

Address: Masonic Medical Research Laboratory, Bleecker St., Utica 2, New York.

∗∗

Formerly, Director, Computing Center, Syracuse University. Now, Director, Computer Science Center, University of Maryland, College Park, Md.

∗∗∗

Associate Professor of Medicine, State University of New York, Upstate Medical Center, Syracuse, N. Y.

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