University of Texas at Austin

Past Event: Oden Institute Seminar

Integrative approach to develop novel low energy defibrillation methods

Flavio Fenton, School of Mines, Georgia Institute of Technology

3:30 – 5PM
Thursday Feb 8, 2018

POB 6.304

Abstract

In this talk, I will describe how we use mathematical methods from dynamical systems, experiments in whole hearts, and high-performance parallel computing in an integrative approach to investigate the mechanisms that initiate, perpetuate, and terminate electrically driven cardiac arrhythmias. In particular, I will describe some of the mechanisms that can initiate fibrillation such as period doubling bifurcations and then describe a control method we have developed to terminate arrhythmias based on synchronization that requires only 10% of the energy needed for conventional defibrillation. For this I will establish a relationship between the response of cardiac tissue to an electric field and the spatial distribution of heterogeneities due to the coronary vascular structure, and discuss how in response to a pulsed electric field E, these heterogeneities serve as nucleation sites for the generation of intramural electrical waves with a source density ρ(E) and a characteristic time constant τ for tissue excitation that obeys a power law. This allow us to develop numerical simulations for effective defibrillation that are then tested in vitro and finally in vivo under clinical conditions. Bio Flavio H Fenton currently works at the School of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology. Professor Fenton works in excitable media, complex systems, and pattern formation, using a combined approach of theory, experiments, and computer simulations. The main areas of research are Experiments in complex systems, Mathematical modeling of complex systems, and High performance computing. The current project is 'computational cardiac dynamics.'

Event information

Date
3:30 – 5PM
Thursday Feb 8, 2018
Location POB 6.304
Hosted by George Biros