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Genesis of the monophasic action potential: role of interstitial resistance and boundary gradients

¹Department of Biomedical Engineering, Duke University, Durham 27708; ²Georgetown University and Veterans Affairs Medical Centers, Washington, District of Columbia 20007; and ³North Carolina Supercomputing Center, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina 27709

Submitted 26 August 2003 ; accepted in final form 1 December 2003

The extracellular potential at the site of a mechanical deformation has been shown to resemble the underlying transmembrane action potential, providing a minimally invasive way to access membrane dynamics. The biophysical factors underlying the genesis of this signal, however, are still poorly understood. With the use of data from a recent experimental study in a murine heart, a three-dimensional anisotropic bidomain model of the mouse ventricular free wall was developed to study the currents and potentials resulting from the application of a point mechanical load on cardiac tissue. The applied pressure is assumed to open nonspecific pressure-sensitive channels depolarizing the membrane, leading to monophasic currents at the electrode edge that give rise to the monophasic action potential (MAP). The results show that the magnitude and the time course of the MAP are reproduced only for certain combinations of local or global intracellular and interstitial resistances that form a resting tissue length constant that, if applied over the entire domain, is smaller than that required to match the wave speed. The results suggest that the application of pressure not only causes local depolarization but also changes local tissue properties, both of which appear to play a critical role in the genesis of the MAP.

cardiac inhomogeneities; extracellular potentials; computer simulation

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