PMID: 9187417Jan 1, 1997Paper

Anatomical architecture and electrical activity of the heart

Acta Cardiologica
Bruno TaccardiN Ingebrigtsen

Abstract

In most early studies of cardiac electrophysiology, the correlation between propagation of excitation and the architecture of cardiac fibers was not addressed. More recently, it has become apparent that the spread of excitation, the sequence of recovery, the associated time-varying potential distributions and the intra- and extracardiac electrocardiograms are strongly affected by the complex orientation of myocardial fibers. This article is a review of older and very recent, partly unpublished, mathematical simulations and experimental findings that document the relationships between cardiac electrophysiology and fiber structure. Important anatomical factors that affect propagation and recovery are: the elongated shape of myocardial fibers which is the basis for electrical anisotropy; the epi-endocardial rotation of fiber direction in the ventricular walls; the epi-endocardial obliqueness of the fibers ("imbrication angle"), and the conduction system. Due to the complex architecture of the fibers, many different pathways are available to an excitation wavefront as it spreads from a pacing site: the straight line; the multiple, bent pathways resulting from the epi-endocardial rotation of fiber direction; the coiling intramural p...Continue Reading

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