Numerical Methods for the Bidomain Equations

Boyce Griffith, New York University

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Over the past decade, the bidomain equations have become one of the preferred approaches to modeling cardiac electrical activity, including both fibrillation and defibrillation. The bidomain model divides cardiac tissue into two distinct compartments – consisting of intracellular and extracellular space – which are connected via a continuous membrane. A transmembrane current, which consists of both capacitive and ionic terms, is typically described by a Hodgkin-Huxley-like model.

We will present two new numerical methods for simulating the bidomain equations and present results for “realistic” cardiac membrane models in two and three spatial dimensions.

Abstract Author(s): Boyce E. Griffith and Charles S. Peskin