{
  "id": "cond-mat/0111552",
  "version": "v1",
  "published": "2001-11-29T19:43:17.000Z",
  "updated": "2001-11-29T19:43:17.000Z",
  "title": "Instability and Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Alternans in Paced Cardiac Tissue",
  "authors": [
    "Blas Echebarria",
    "Alain Karma"
  ],
  "comment": "4 pages, 3 figures, submitted to PRL",
  "doi": "10.1103/PhysRevLett.88.208101",
  "categories": [
    "cond-mat.stat-mech",
    "cond-mat.soft",
    "q-bio.TO"
  ],
  "abstract": "We derive an equation that governs the spatiotemporal dynamics of small amplitude alternans in paced cardiac tissue. We show that a pattern-forming linear instability leads to the spontaneous formation of stationary or traveling waves whose nodes divide the tissue into regions with opposite phase of oscillation of action potential duration. This instability is important because it creates dynamically an heterogeneous electrical substrate for inducing fibrillation if the tissue size exceeds a fraction of the pattern wavelength. We compute this wavelength analytically as a function of three basic length scales characterizing dispersion and inter-cellular electrical coupling.",
  "revisions": [
    {
      "version": "v1",
      "updated": "2001-11-29T19:43:17.000Z"
    }
  ],
  "analyses": {
    "keywords": [
      "paced cardiac tissue",
      "spatiotemporal dynamics",
      "basic length scales characterizing dispersion",
      "action potential duration",
      "small amplitude alternans"
    ],
    "tags": [
      "journal article"
    ],
    "publication": {
      "publisher": "APS",
      "journal": "Phys. Rev. Lett."
    },
    "note": {
      "typesetting": "TeX",
      "pages": 4,
      "language": "en",
      "license": "arXiv",
      "status": "editable"
    }
  }
}