Biomedical Engineering: "Electrical Signals in a Heart"
Prof. Simonetta Filippi and Dr. Christian Cherubini - Università Campus Biomedico di Roma, Rome, Italy
Prof. Simonetta Filippi and Dr. Christian Cherubini from Università Campus Biomedico di Roma (Italy) use COMSOL Multiphysics to model how electrical signals propagate in cardiac tissue. They base their work on mathematical models that describe complex phenomena of excitable media.
With excitable media, elementary segments or cells can have a well-defined rest state, a thres-hold for excitation, and a diffusive transfer between nearest neighbors. The excitable media modeling concept applies to many different complex interacting processes, including nerve pulses, the spreading of forest fires, and certain types of chemical reactions. With these diverse phenomena, signals below a certain threshold die out, while signals above the threshold propagate without damping.
The particular excitable media theory Filippi and Cherubinie employ, the FitzHugh-Nagumo equations and the Complex Ginzburg-Landau equations, allow them to explore how interesting patterns like spiral waves that produce effects similar to those of cardiac arrhythmia.