Key result
A proposed control technique for simultaneous unpinning of multiple pinned spiral waves in excitable media demonstrated numerical superiority over the underdrive pacing method.
Why the study?
Heterogeneities in excitable media can pin spiral waves and stabilize ventricular fibrillation, but previous unpinning studies focused only on single pinned spiral waves.
A novel control technique demonstrates superiority over underdrive pacing for simultaneously unpinning multiple spiral waves in computational models of excitable media, with potential implications for terminating ventricular fibrillation.
There are many examples of excitable media, such as the heart, that can show complex dynamics and where control is a challenging task. Heavy means like a strong electric shock are nowadays still necessary to control and terminate ventricular fibrillation (VF). It is known that heterogeneities in an excitable medium can stabilize the activity, e.g., spiral waves can pin to such obstacles. This might also be a reason for the persistence of VF and the difficulty to control it. Previous studies investigated systems with a single pinned spiral wave and demonstrated how the spiral can be unpinned. In this article, we extend this case and investigate a generic excitable system with multiple pinned spiral waves. We describe a control technique that allows the simultaneous unpinning of pinned spiral waves. Apart from theoretical considerations, we provide numerical evidence that the proposed technique is superior to the underdrive pacing method that has reportedly high success rates when applied to a single pinned spiral.
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Wörden et al. (2019) studied Ventricular fibrillation (theoretical model). Simultaneous unpinning control technique vs. Underdrive pacing method was evaluated on Unpinning of multiple pinned spiral waves. A proposed control technique for simultaneous unpinning of multiple pinned spiral waves in excitable media demonstrated numerical superiority over the underdrive pacing method.
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