Synchronization of chaotic early afterdepolarizations in the genesis of cardiac arrhythmias.

ABSTRACT: The synchronization of coupled oscillators plays an important role in many biological systems, including the heart. In heart diseases, cardiac myocytes can exhibit abnormal electrical oscillations, such as early afterdepolarizations (EADs), which are associated with lethal arrhythmias. A key unanswered question is how cellular EADs partially synchronize in tissue, as is required for them to propagate. Here, we present evidence, from computational simulations and experiments in isolated myocytes, that irregular EAD behavior is dynamical chaos. We then show in electrically homogeneous tissue models that chaotic EADs synchronize globally when the tissue is smaller than a critical size. However, when the tissue exceeds the critical size, electrotonic coupling can no longer globally synchronize

SUBMITTER: Sato D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2651322 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature