Velocity and stability of solitary planar travelling wave solutions of intracellular [Ca](2+)

Normal cardiac muscle contraction occurs in response to a rapid rise follow ed by a slower decay in intracellular calcium concentration. When cardiac m uscle cells are loaded with calcium, an intracellular store releases calciu m into the cytosol by the process of calcium-induced calcium release (CICR) . This release contributes to the rise in intracellular calcium which in tu rn triggers contraction. We use two qualitative piecewise linear reaction-d iffusion models of this behaviour to investigate the speed, stability and w aveform of plane waves using singular perturbation techniques. (C) 1999 Soc iety for Mathematical Biology.