Optimisation of Ionic Models to Fit Tissue Action Potentials: Application to 3D Atrial Modelling

A 3D model of atrial electrical activity has been developed with spatially heterogeneous electrophysiological properties. The atrial geometry, reconstructed from the male Visible Human dataset, included gross anatomical features such as the central and peripheral sinoatrial node (SAN), intra-atrial connections, pulmonary veins, inferior and superior vena cava, and the coronary sinus. Membrane potentials of myocytes from spontaneously active or electrically paced in vitro rabbit cardiac tissue preparations were recorded using intracellular glass microelectrodes. Action potentials of central and peripheral SAN, right and left atrial, and pulmonary vein myocytes were each fitted using a generic ionic model having three phenomenological ionic current components: one time-dependent inward, one time-dependent outward, and one leakage current. To bridge the gap between the single-cell ionic models and the gross electrical behaviour of the 3D whole-atrial model, a simplified 2D tissue disc with heterogeneous regions was optimised to arrive at parameters for each cell type under electrotonic load. Parameters were then incorporated into the 3D atrial model, which as a result exhibited a spontaneously active SAN able to rhythmically excite the atria. The tissue-based optimisation of ionic models and the modelling process outlined are generic and applicable to image-based computer reconstruction and simulation of excitable tissue.