Structural and Functional Determinants of Spatiotemporal Periodicity in Cardiac Impulse Propagation

Funded Activity Summary

Abnormal heart rhythms (cardiac arrhythmias) are responsible for much morbidity and excess mortality in Australia. Although many abnormalities leading to an abnormal heart rhythm may be successfully treated by medications or minimally invasive operative procedures there are several important ones which are not. These include the most common significant cause of an abnormal heart rhythm, atrial fibrillation, and the arrhythmias responsible for approximately half of sudden deaths, ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation. Atrial fibrillation is a leading cause of stroke. Sudden death is associated with aging and is an increasing problem because of the rising mean age of the population. Recent negative attention on the side effects of medications used for the treatment of cardiac arrhythmias has appropriately increased interest in curative approaches requiring no onging medications. These procedures usually rely on mapping electrical activity in the heart and interrupting abnormal electrical pathways using radiofrequency electrical current. The procedures are unsuccessful when existing techniques fail to identify the underlying mechanism responsible for the abnormal heart rhythm or when the source of the abnormal beating cannot be localised within the heart. In this project we investigate the fundamental basis for a new approach to these problems. By examining the variability of the beat rate and the variability of the beat rate at different points within the heart we may be able to identify arrhythmia mechanisms and localise arrhythmia sources. In this project we will examine in groups of cells the structures and types of electrical circuits which give rise to certain types of beat-to-beat variability in the heart. This information will be essential for the interpretation of information obtained in later human studies and the subsequent development of new curative procedures for these problems.

Funded Activity Details

Start Date: 01-01-2002

End Date: 01-01-2004

Funding Scheme: NHMRC Project Grants

Funding Amount: $211,320.00

Funder: National Health and Medical Research Council

Research Topics

ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)

Medical biotechnology not elsewhere classified

ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)

There are no SEO codes available for this funding activity

Other Keywords

Atrial Fibrillation | Atrial Flutter | Cardiac Arrhythmias | Sudden Death | Ventricular Tachycardia | arrhythmias | conduction | heart | heart rate variability | propagation

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