Comparison between the role of discontinuities in cardiac conduction and in a one-dimensional hardware model.

In real electrophysiological experiments, irregularities in the extracellular excitation spread are believed to depend on cardiac tissue microstructure. An electronic hardware model was developed to analyze this dependence by placing some inhomogeneities (slow propagation areas) in the medium. The position of such inhomogeneities is correlated with abnormal delays and irregularities measured in signal propagation.

Measuring activation patterns of the heart at a microscopic size scale with thin-film sensors.

To study the spread of excitation in ventricular heart preparations we have designed a fast, high-resolution recording and mapping system. Papillary muscles were dissected from the isolated guinea pig hearts. The preparation was fixed in a tissue bath and superfused with Tyrode solution.