Control of Cardiac Arrhythmias

Abnormal heart rhythms, or cardiac arrhythmias, can result in significant physical impairment and can lead to an increased risk for serious medical problems such as stroke or even sudden death. This team uses mathematics to further the understanding of cardiac arrhythmias and to develop new methods to predict which patients are at risk for arrhythmias and methods for their control. In the past year systems were developed to analyze changes in the electrical properties of heart tissue. An innovative imaging approach that characterizes changes in the cell membrane structure will help scientists understand how the cell membrane is affected by disease and may lead to new therapeutic approaches. Further research with corporate partner Medtronic, studied the risk for sudden cardiac death based on analysis of the fluctuation of the heart rate. By modeling the electrical activity in the heart which causes fibrillation, a potentially lethal arrhythmia, the team seeks to understand why the abnormality occurs and why defibrillation, the application of a large electrical shock used to treat the problem, can successfully restart the heart.