Linear time-delay feedback control of a pathological rhythm in a cardiac conduction model

Abstract

This paper describes a method based on one-step linear time-delay feedback (LTDF) for suppressing a pathological period-2 rhythm (cardiac alternans) in an atrioventricular nodal conduction model. The LTDF controller is effective at suppressing alternans by stabilizing the map to one of a set of unstable fixed points. Additionally, we show that alternans can be prevented by tracking the period-1 rhythm past the point where bifurcation occurs, and that the method is robust to both measurement error and experimental noise. Finally, we demonstrate that this method is simpler to implement and more effective than the OGY chaos control method which was used recently to stabilize the same system.