ON THE WAY TO THE VIRTUAL HEART


Alexandre  V. Panfilov 
Department of Theoretical Biology, 
University of Utrecht
Padualaan 8, 3584 CH Utrecht, The Netherlands



Modeling in cardiology gives one of the most exciting and
important examples of application of methods of theoretical and
computational physics to medicine and biology. Such modeling started
more than 40 years ago, form the famous Hodgkin-Huxley model
for propagation of excitation waves in nerve cells.
Later, the modeling was extended to cardiac tissue (Noble 1962), where
in our days we have the most important medical applications.  It turned
out, that abnormalities in wave propagation in the heart underlay the
most dangerous cardiac arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death, accounting
for about 1 death in 10 in industrialized countries.
Importance of modeling in cardiology is due to several factors. First,
heart has a relatively simple physiological function, the heart is just
a pump controlled by waves of excitations; second, the wave propagation
in the heart is a relatively simple process which can be described in
form of excitable media (see later) and finally, although the heart has
about hundred million cells per cm3, fast development of computers
makes it feasible to develop an accurate virtual human heart which can
be
used for medical and pharmacological purposes.

In my talk I present our approach to developing of a realistic computer
model based on detailed anatomical data on geometry and fiber structure
of the heart. I discuss the problems and the most important questions on
the way to the virtual heart and possible applications of such heart
model.  Finally I show the results of study of cardiac arrhythmias using
our model.  The results are illustrated by several short videos.