Applying a global pulse disturbance to eliminate spiral waves in models of cardiac muscle*

Abstract

Removal of spiral waves in cardiac muscle is necessary because of their threat to life. Common methods for this removal are to apply a local disturbance to the media, such as a periodic forcing. However, most of these methods accelerate the beating of the cardiac muscle, resulting in the aggravation of the ventricular tachycardia, which directly threatens life. In the present study, in order to clear off spiral waves, a global pulse-disturbance is applied to the media based on three models of cardiac muscle. It is found that the spiral waves are eliminated and the frequency of the cardiac muscle is decreased in a short time, and finally, the state of the medium reaches the normal oscillation, which supports a target waves. Our method sheds light on the removal of spiral waves in cardiac muscle and can prevent the ventricular tachycardia as well as the ventricular fibrillation.x