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Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference: GR/S75314/01
Title: Analytical approach to realistic models of excitation propagation in heart
Principal Investigator: Biktashev, Professor VN
Other Investigators:
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Department: Mathematical Sciences
Organisation: University of Liverpool
Scheme: Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts: 01 June 2004 Ends: 31 August 2007 Value (£): 133,999
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
Animal & human physiology Non-linear Systems Mathematics
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
Healthcare
Related Grants:
Panel History:  
Summary on Grant Application Form
Modern models of excitation waves in heart are remarkably detailed, and provide impressive accuracy. They are very complicated and so far only allowed numerical treatment. Simplifications of these models exist. They allow some analytical treatment, have helped intuitive insights, but are not good for quantitative predictions. We have shown recently that they fail completely, even on a qualitative level, in the most important cases: when describing propagation failure. The reason for that lies in wrong asymptotic properties of the simplified models, which are not based on heart properties, but adopted from other sciences. This understanding has allowed us to suggest an alternative class of simplified models, truly based on detailed models, and still tractable analytically, using certain non-standard singular perturbation techniques. In this project we will develop this initial finding into a full scale approach and create a series of models of various degrees of simplification. These models will adequately describe propagation and its failure, provide reasonable accuracy and yet allow analytical or hybrid analytical-numerical treatment, making modelling more efficient than ever before. This will give a qualitatively better level of understanding of an important class of cardiac pathologies, and open new possibilities of their prevention and treatment.
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Organisation Website: http://www.liv.ac.uk