55,243 research outputs found
Computational probabilistic quantification of pro-arrhythmic risk from scar and left-to-right heterogeneity in the human ventricles
Both scar and left-to-right ventricular (LV/RV) differences in repolarization properties have been implicated as risk factors for lethal arrhythmias. As a possible mechanism for the initiation of re-entry, a recent study has indicated that LV/RV heterogeneities in action potential duration (APD) adaptation can cause a transient increase in APD dispersion following rate acceleration, promoting unidirectional block of conduction at the LV/RV junction. In the presence of an ischemic region and ectopic stimulation, a pathological dispersion in repolarization has been suggested to increase the risk of electrical re-entry. However, the exact location and timing of the ectopic activation play a crucial role in initiation of re-entry, and certain combinations may lead to re-entry even under normal LV/RV dispersion in repolarization. This suggests that the phenomenon needs to be investigated in a quantitative way. In this study we employ a computationally efficient, phenomenological model in order to investigate the proarrhythmic properties of a range of combinations of position and timing of an ectopic activation. This allows us to probabilistically study how increasing interventricular dispersion of repolarization increases arrhythmic risk. Results indicate that a larger LV/RV dispersion in repolarization allows ectopic beats to initiate re-entry during a significantly larger time window and from a greater number of locations compared to the case of smaller LV/RV dispersion
Na/K pump regulation of cardiac repolarization: Insights from a systems biology approach
The sodium-potassium pump is widely recognized as the principal mechanism for active ion transport across the cellular membrane of cardiac tissue, being responsible for the creation and maintenance of the transarcolemmal sodium and potassium gradients, crucial for cardiac cell electrophysiology. Importantly, sodium-potassium pump activity is impaired in a number of major diseased conditions, including ischemia and heart failure. However, its subtle ways of action on cardiac electrophysiology, both directly through its electrogenic nature and indirectly via the regulation of cell homeostasis, make it hard to predict the electrophysiological consequences of reduced sodium-potassium pump activity in cardiac repolarization. In this review, we discuss how recent studies adopting the Systems Biology approach, through the integration of experimental and modeling methodologies, have identified the sodium-potassium pump as one of the most\ud
important ionic mechanisms in regulating key properties of cardiac repolarization and its rate-dependence, from subcellular to whole organ levels. These include the role of the pump in the biphasic modulation of cellular repolarization and refractoriness, the rate control of intracellular sodium and calcium dynamics and therefore of the adaptation of repolarization to changes in heart rate, as well as its importance in regulating pro-arrhythmic substrates through modulation of dispersion of repolarization and restitution. Theoretical findings are consistent across a variety of cell types and species including human, and widely in agreement with experimental findings. The novel insights and hypotheses on the role of the pump in cardiac electrophysiology obtained through this integrative approach could eventually lead to novel therapeutic and diagnostic strategies
What can Simbol-X do for gamma-ray binaries?
Gamma-ray binaries have been uncovered as a new class of Galactic objects in
the very high energy sky (> 100 GeV). The three systems known today have hard
X-ray spectra (photon index ~ 1.5), extended radio emission and a high
luminosity in gamma-rays. Recent monitoring campaigns of LSI +61 303 in X-rays
have confirmed variability in these systems and revealed a spectral hardening
with increasing flux. In a generic one-zone leptonic model, the cooling of
relativistic electrons accounts for the main spectral and temporal features
observed at high energy. Persistent hard X-ray emission is expected to extend
well beyond 10 keV. We explain how Simbol-X will constrain the existing models
in connection with Fermi Space Telescope measurements. Because of its
unprecedented sensitivity in hard X-rays, Simbol-X will also play a role in the
discovery of new gamma-ray binaries, giving new insights into the evolution of
compact binaries.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, Proceedings of the 2nd International Simbol-X
symposium held in Paris, 2-5 December 200
Low polarized emission from the core of coronal mass ejections
In white-light coronagraph images, cool prominence material is sometimes
observed as bright patches in the core of coronal mass ejections (CMEs). If, as
generally assumed, this emission is caused by Thomson-scattered light from the
solar surface, it should be strongly polarised tangentially to the solar limb.
However, the observations of a CME made with the SECCHI/STEREO coronagraphs on
31 August 2007 show that the emission from these bright core patches is
exceptionally low polarised. We used the polarisation ratio method of Moran and
Davila (2004) to localise the barycentre of the CME cloud. By analysing the
data from both STEREO spacecraft we could resolve the plane-of-the-sky
ambiguity this method usually suffers from. Stereoscopic triangulation was used
to independently localise the low-polarisation patch relative to the cloud. We
demonstrated for the first time that the bright core material is located close
to the centre of the CME cloud. We show that the major part of the CME core
emission, more than 85% in our case, is H radiation and only a small
fraction is Thomson-scattered light. Recent calculations also imply that the
plasma density in the patch is 8 10 cm or more compared to 2.6
10 cm for the Thomson-scattering CME environment surrounding the
core material.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
Muon diffusion and electronic magnetism in YTiO
We report a SR study in a YTiO single crystal. We observe
slow local field fluctuations at low temperature which become faster as the
temperature is increased. Our analysis suggests that muon diffusion is present
in this system and becomes small below 40 K and therefore incoherent. A
surprisingly strong electronic magnetic signal is observed with features
typical for muons thermally diffusing towards magnetic traps below K and released from them above this temperature. We attribute the traps to
Ti defects in the diluted limit. Our observations are highly relevant to
the persistent spin dynamics debate on TiO pyrochlores and their
crystal quality
Fractional diffusion models of cardiac electrical propagation: role of structural heterogeneity in dispersion of repolarization
Structural heterogeneity constitutes one of the main substrates influencing impulse propagation in living tissues. In cardiac muscle, improved understanding on its role is key to advancing our interpretation of cell-to-cell coupling, and how tissue structure modulates electrical propagation and arrhythmogenesis in the intact and diseased heart. We propose fractional diffusion models as a novel mathematical description of structurally heterogeneous excitable media, as a mean of representing the modulation of the total electric field by the secondary electrical sources associated with tissue inhomogeneities. Our results, validated against in-vivo human recordings and experimental data of different animal species, indicate that structural heterogeneity underlies many relevant characteristics of cardiac propagation, including the shortening of action potential duration along the activation pathway, and the progressive modulation by premature beats of spatial patterns of dispersion of repolarization. The proposed approach may also have important implications in other research fields involving excitable complex media
Moving embedded lattice solitons
It was recently proved that isolated unstable "embedded lattice solitons"
(ELS) may exist in discrete systems. The discovery of these ELS gives rise to
relevant questions such as the following: are there continuous families of
ELS?, can ELS be stable?, is it possible for ELS to move along the lattice?,
how do ELS interact?. The present work addresses these questions by showing
that a novel differential-difference equation (a discrete version of a complex
mKdV equation) has a two-parameter continuous family of exact ELS. The
numerical tests reveal that these solitons are stable and robust enough to
withstand collisions. The model may apply to the description of a Bose-Einstein
condensate with dipole-dipole interactions between the atoms, trapped in a deep
optical-lattice potential.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figure
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