Non-monotonous dose response function of the termination of spiral wave chaos

Abstract

The conventional termination technique of life threatening cardiac arrhythmia like ventriculartextlessbrtextgreaterfibrillation is the application of a high-energy electrical defibrillation shock, coming along with severetextlessbrtextgreaterside-effects. In order to improve the current treatment reducing these side-effects, the applicationtextlessbrtextgreaterof pulse sequences of lower energy instead of a single high-energy pulse are promising candidates.textlessbrtextgreaterIn this study, we show that in numerical simulations the dose-response function of pulse sequencestextlessbrtextgreaterapplied to two-dimensional spiral wave chaos is not necessarily monotonously increasing, but exhibitstextlessbrtextgreatera non-trivial frequency dependence. This insight into crucial phenomena appearing during terminationtextlessbrtextgreaterattempts provides a deeper understanding of the governing termination mechanisms in general, andtextlessbrtextgreatertherefore may open up the path towards an efficient termination of cardiac arrhythmia in the future.

Publication
Scientific Reports 12: 12043