Using quantitative and qualitative constraints in models of cardiac electrophysiology

摘要

A qualitative model of the electrical conducting system of the heart is developed which attempts to represent basic physiological and pathophysiological processes. The state descriptions and state transition rules are used to generate a tree of possible behaviours from a given start state. We demonstrate that without any further knowledge, explosive combinatorial branching occurs, but that information on state durations (expressed either quantitatively or qualitatively) can be employed to reduce very significantly the number of behaviours. An initial indication is given as to how the approach could be used to explain observed electrocardiograms (ECGs) in terms of the underlying physiological processes.