Interpreting biomagnetic fields of planar wave fronts in cardiac muscle
Rodrigo Weber dos Santos 1* and Hans Koch 1
1 Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: rodrigo.weber{at}ptb.de.
Submitted on December 22, 2004
Revised on January 26, 2005
Accepted on 7 February 2005
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Abstract |
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The recent results of Holzer et al. (2004) reveal the existence of net currents that flow along the front of a planar wave propagating through cardiac tissue. This is an important contribution towards the better understanding of the physics of biomagnetic fields. However, while the authors claim their results reveal particular bidomain properties, we show in this short letter that the results allow multiple interpretations. For instance, cardiac anisotropy by itself may also explain the existence of a net current along the wave front. Based on our calculations we suggest additional experiments which would allow to distinguish between these two explanations and thus provide further evidence on the basic physics behind cardiac biomagnetism.
Key Words:
Bidomain model, Biomagnetism, Cardiac Electrophysiology, Intra-cellular Currents
