Simulation software for a human ventricular myocyte model

Abstract

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are major health problems and the leading cause of death around the world. Cardiac arrhythmias form a significant portion of CVDs which are the electrical production and conduction problems of the heart. Diagnosis andtreatmentofthecardiacarrhythmiascanbenefitsignificantlyfromacomprehensive understanding of the underlying arrhythmogenic mechanisms. However, the limited availability of experimental data is still a major problem in this field. Computational modeling is a quite valuable tool in cardiac electrophysiology as it constitutes a backbone for in silico simulations based on the existing experimental data. Validated mathematical models can help to uncover the underlying ionic mechanisms of cardiac arrhythmias. Moreover, they can provide benefits to investigate the drug-ion channel interactions and come up with new treatments for cardiac disorders. On the other side, the complexity of the modern cardiac cell models is quite high as they include higher level of physiological details. It can be an error-prone and timeconsuming process to code them using conventional programming languages in order to conduct simulations. Thus, an easy-to-use cardiac action potential simulation software and application are designed and developed in this thesis. Furthermore, human ventricular cell models are implemented in order to conduct simulations for heart failure condition and various channel blocker drug effects.|Keywords : Cardiac action potential, computational modeling, simulation software.