Research On Virtual Myocardial Cell-based Electrocardiogram Simulation

The body surface electrocardiogram (ECG) is an important cardiac diagnostic tool. But because the relationship between the body surface ECG and the work state of heart can not be understood completely, there is much limitation when the ECG is used for clinical diagnosis. With the advent of molecular medicine, both diagnosis and treatment increasingly focus on the subcellular level. In order to improve the diagnostic precision of cardiac disease and understand the effect on the body surface ECG of myocardial cell and ionic activity, the experimental method can be used, but it needs long time, high cost and big fatalness, so can't make people content. Using computer model of heart electric field, this problem can be solved perfectly.Virtual myocardial cell describes electrophysiological detail such as the open and close of the ionic channel and ionic current with mathematical model. The research on the virtual myocardial began in 1960s. Many types of myocardial cells from different parts of the heart have been studied nowadays. Models of these cells can describe activity of real cells accurately. The research on the electric field based virtual myocardial cell has begun recently. Because the structure of the heart which is comprised of millions of cells is much complicated, simulation of such a system is not a simple thing.An ECG model of one dimensional myocardial fiber based on virtual myocardial cell is put forward in this paper. Pseudo-ECG can be got by computing potential of electric field produced by diffusion of excitement through this fiber. The model is not simply simulation of the ECG morphology, but it can be used for research on the relationship between cell or ionic current and ECG., because the virtual myocardial cell contains cardiac electrophysiological detail such as ionic current and action potential.In this paper, besides the simulation of the normal physiological condition, ECG waveforms under pathological conditions due to cell membrane ionic channel mutation such of as long-QT syndrome, short-QT syndrome, T wave alternans and Brugada syndrome also be simulated and researched, which validated this ECG model, at the same time be beneficial to further research on...