A computer model of human atria with reasonable computation load and realistic anatomical properties

Atrial fibrillation is the most frequent arrhythmia, provoking discomfort, heart failure and arterial embolisms. The aim of this work is to develop a simplified anatomical computer model of human atria for the study of atrial arrhythmias and the understanding of electrical propagation mechanisms. Wi th the model we propose, up to 40 s of real-time propagation have been simu lated on a single-processor computer. The size and the electrophysiological properties of the simulated atria are within realistic values and informat ion about anatomy has been taken into account in a three-dimensional struct ure. Besides normal sinus beat, pathological phenomena such as flutter and fibrillation have been induced using a programmed stimulation protocol. One important observation in our model is that atrial arrhythmias are a combin ation of functional and anatomical reentries and that the geometry plays an important role. This virtual atrium can reproduce electrophysiological obs ervations made in humans but with the advantage of showing in great detail how arrhythmias are initiated and sustained. Such details are difficult or impossible to study in humans. This model will serve us as a tool to evalua te the impact of new therapeutic strategies and to improve them.