@article{ISI:000535290100030,
 abstract = {Several pathological conditions introduce spatial variations in the
electrical properties of cardiac tissue. These variations occur as
localized or distributed gradients in ion-channel functionality over
extended tissue media. Electrical waves, propagating through such
affected tissue, demonstrate distortions, depending on the nature of the
ionic gradient in the diseased substrate. If the degree of distortion is
large, reentrant activity may develop, in the form of rotating spiral
(2d) and scroll (3d) waves of electrical activity. These reentrant waves
are associated with the occurrence of lethal cardiac rhythm disorders,
known as arrhythmias, such as ventricular tachycardia (VT) and
ventricular fibrillation (VF), which are believed to be common
precursors of sudden cardiac arrest. By using state-of-the-art
mathematical models for generic, and ionically-realistic (human) cardiac
tissue, we study the detrimental effects of these ionic gradients on
electrical wave propagation. We propose a possible mechanism for the
development of instabilities in reentrant wave patterns, in the presence
of ionic gradients in cardiac tissue, which may explain how one type of
arrhythmia (VT) can degenerate into another (VF). Our proposed mechanism
entails anisotropic reduction in the wavelength of the excitation waves
because of anisotropic variation in its electrical properties, in
particular the action potential duration (APD). We find that the
variation in the APD, which we induce by varying ion-channel
conductances, imposes a spatial variation in the spiral- or scroll-wave
frequency omega. Such gradients in omega induce anisotropic shortening
of wavelength of the spiral or scroll arms and eventually leads to
instabilitites.},
 article-number = {e0230214},
 author = {Zimik, Soling and Pandit, Rahul and Majumder, Rupamanjari},
 doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0230214},
 issn = {1932-6203},
 journal = {PLOS ONE},
 month = {MAR 13},
 number = {3},
 orcid-numbers = {Majumder, Rupamanjari/0000-0002-3851-9225},
 times-cited = {0},
 title = {Anisotropic shortening in the wavelength of electrical waves promotes
onset of electrical turbulence in cardiac tissue: An in silico study},
 unique-id = {ISI:000535290100030},
 volume = {15},
 year = {2020}
}