Optimal entrainment for removal of pinned spiral waves

Cardiac fibrillation is caused by self-sustaining spiral waves that occur in the myocardium, some of which can be pinned to anatomical obstacles, making them more difficult to eliminate. A small electrical stimulation is often sufficient to unpin these spirals but only if it is applied during the vulnerable unpinning window. Even if these unpinning windows can be inferred from data, when multiple pinned spirals exist, their unpinning windows will not generally overlap. Using phase-based reduction techniques, we formulate and solve an optimal control problem to yield a time-varying external voltage gradient that can synchronize a collection of spiral waves that are pinned to a collection of heterogeneous obstacles. Upon synchronization, the unpinning windows overlap so that they can be simultaneously unpinned by applying an external voltage gradient pulse at an appropriate moment. Numerical validation is presented in bidomain model simulations. Results represent a proof-of-concept illustration of the proposed unpinning strategy which explicitly incorporates heterogeneity in the problem formulation and requires no real-time feedback about the system state.

Automated summary

In this study, a strategy for unpinning cardiac fibrillation is proposed using phase analysis and optimal control. Synchronization of pinned spiral waves on heterogeneous obstacles is achieved using a time-varying external voltage gradient, and unpinning is performed simultaneously at appropriate stimulation moments. Numerical validation demonstrates the feasibility of this strategy.