Magnetocardiographic pattern analysis of reentry wave propagation in two-dimensional ventricular tissue using a human cardiac cell model

We present the computational results of reentry wave propagation using an electrophysiological model of a human ventricular cell and the associated magnetic field map in two-dimensional cardiac tissue. A. reentry wave caused by cardiac disease can induce ventricular fibrillation, the major cause of sudden cardiac death. Recent research has indicated that a magnetocardiograph (MCG) can detect early heart muscle ischemia. However, clinical parameters for using MCG images to identify heart ischemia are poorly understood. Therefore, we examined details of magnetic field variation and related physiological parameters for a reentry wave in two-dimensional cardiac tissue. We employed a new human cardiac cell model to simulate action potential (AP) propagation in two-dimensional rectangular tissue, and used a finite element method and Galerkin approximation, to spatially discretize the two-dimensional domain. The reentry wave was generated using an S1-S2 protocol. Calculations of the magnetic field pattern were based on an assumption of a horizontally layered conductor according to reentry wave propagation in two-dimensional cardiac tissue. Our computational results for cardiac cells support previous findings. We also compared action potential and ECG signals during reentry wave propagation to those during normal wave propagation. Temporal changes in the reentry wave motion and changes in magnetic field map patterns were also analyzed according to the current direction and strength.