Computer Simulations of Cardiac Electrophysiology

CardioWave is a modular system for simulating wavefront conduction in the heart. These simulations may be used to investigate the factors that generate and sustain life-threatening arrhythmias such as ventricular fibrillation. The user selects a set of modules which most closely reflects the simulation they are interested in and the simulator is built automatically. Thus, we do not present one monolithic simulator, but rather a simulator-generator which allows the researcher to make the trade-offs of complexity versus performance. The results presented here are from simulations run on an IBM SP parallel computer and a cluster of workstations. The performance numbers show excellent scalability up through 128 processors. With the larger memory of the parallel machines, we have been able to perform highly realistic simulations of the human atria. These simulations include realistic, 3-D geometries with inhomogeneity and anisotropy as we as highly complex membrane dynamics.

[1]  Message Passing Interface Forum.  MPI: A message - passing interface standard , 1994 .

[2]  Stefan Andersson,et al.  RS/6000 Scientific and Technical Computing: POWER3 Introduction and Tuning Guide , 1998 .

[3]  B M Horácek,et al.  Computer model of excitation and recovery in the anisotropic myocardium. II. Excitation in the simplified left ventricle. , 1991, Journal of electrocardiology.

[4]  R. FitzHugh.  Mathematical models of threshold phenomena in the nerve membrane , 1955 .

[5]  Anthony Skjellum,et al.  A High-Performance, Portable Implementation of the MPI Message Passing Interface Standard , 1996, Parallel Comput..

[6]  K. T. Ng,et al.  Three-dimensional bidomain simulation of electrical propagation in cardiac tissue , 1995, Proceedings of 17th International Conference of the Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society.

[7]  Weilun Quan,et al.  Using domain decomposition and priority queue integration scheme to solve two-dimensional model of myocardium , 1995, Proceedings of 17th International Conference of the Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society.

[8]  B M Horácek,et al.  Computer model of excitation and recovery in the anisotropic myocardium. I. Rectangular and cubic arrays of excitable elements. , 1991, Journal of electrocardiology.

[9]  William Gropp,et al.  User's Guide for mpich, a Portable Implementation of MPI Version 1.2.2 , 1996 .

[10]  Fred P. Brooks,et al.  The Mythical Man-Month , 1975, Reliable Software.

[11]  Craig S. Henriquez,et al.  Why anatomy matters: normal conduction and flutter in a computer model of the human atria , 2000 .

[12]  John P. Wikswo,et al.  A Three Dimensional Finite Element Bidomain Model For Cardiac Tissue , 1991, Proceedings of the Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society Volume 13: 1991.

[13]  J. Clark,et al.  Mathematical model of an adult human atrial cell: the role of K+ currents in repolarization. , 1998, Circulation research.

[14]  Robert Plonsey,et al.  Bioelectricity: A Quantitative Approach Duke University’s First MOOC , 2013 .

[15]  Denis Noble,et al.  Simulating cardiac sinus and atrial network dynamics on the Connection Machine , 1993 .

[16]  Raimond L. Winslow,et al.  Modelling large SA node-atrial cell networks on a massively parallel computer , 1992 .

[17]  M. Burgess,et al.  Computer simulations of three-dimensional propagation in ventricular myocardium. Effects of intramural fiber rotation and inhomogeneous conductivity on epicardial activation. , 1993, Circulation research.

[18]  William Gropp,et al.  User''s Guide for mpich , 1996 .

[19]  Jr. Frederick P. Brooks,et al.  The mythical man-month (anniversary ed.) , 1995 .

[20]  Hans Othmer,et al.  A computational study of wave propagation in a model for anisotropic cardiac ventricular tissue , 1995, HPCN Europe.

[21]  Theo C. Pilkington,et al.  High-Performance Computing in Biomedical Research , 1992 .

[22]  N V Thakor,et al.  A Massively Parallel Computer Model of Propagation Through a Two‐Dimensional Cardiac Syncytium , 1991, Pacing and clinical electrophysiology : PACE.

[23]  Greg Burns,et al.  Robust MPI Message Delivery with Guaranteed Resources , 2002 .

[24]  A. Hodgkin,et al.  A quantitative description of membrane current and its application to conduction and excitation in nerve , 1952, The Journal of physiology.

[25]  John A. Board,et al.  A modular simulation system for the bidomain equations , 1999 .