Page 6 - Cardiac Electrophysiology | A Modeling and Imaging Approach

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Genesis of electrocardiographic potentials is described in terms of physiological processes and

concepts from electromagnetic field theory. Because the emphasis is on biophysical principles at
the molecular and cellular levels, detailed cell and ion-channel models are used, rather than
low-dimensional dynamic models. 3,4 For the same reason, the highest simulation scale is the
multicellular tissue, rather than the whole-heart.
5

Arrhythmia is an emergent behavior that occurs in the whole heart. In this monograph,
we provide insights into arrhythmic substrates of the human heart in situ. To do so, we apply
Electrocardiographic Imaging (ECGI), a novel approach for mapping the electrical activity of the

heart noninvasively. We study the electrophysiology of the normal human heart and of
arrhythmogenic conditions in patients. In this way, the monograph integrates across scales from
the molecular and cellular to cardiac electrophysiology and clinical arrhythmias in the whole heart
of patients.

Parts of the information included in this monograph were published previously in many
journal articles, including the following reviews: A.G. Kleber, Y. Rudy, “Basic Mechanisms of Cardiac
Impulse Propagation and Reentrant Arrhythmias” Physiological Reviews 2004;84:431-488 and

Y. Rudy, “Mathematical modeling of complex biological systems: From genes and molecules to
organs and organisms: Heart” In: Edward H. Egelman , editor: Comprehensive Biophysics, Volume
9, Simulation and Modeling. Harel Weinstein volume editor. Oxford: Academic Press, 2012.
pp. 268-327.