Success of spiral wave unpinning from heterogeneity in a cardiac tissue depends on its boundary conditions

Abstract

The mechanism of the low voltage defibrillation is based on the drift of the spiral wave induced by a high frequency wave train. In the process, it is first necessary to unpin the wave from the stabilizing obstacle. We study the conditions of unpinning of a rotating wave anchored to the defect by posing the main accent on the boundary conditions of it. The computer simulations performed using the Korhonen model showed that the fluxes through the border of the defect in the cardiac tissue can significantly modify the excitation pattern, and the working frequency gap for the unpinning of reentry waves could be substantially reduced, making overdrive pacing procedure less effective or practically inapplicable.