A Simulation Study of the Ventricular Myocardial Action Potential

Abstract

A mathematical model based on the formalism of the Hodgkin-Huxley equations was implemented on a microcomputer system and used to simulate the membrane action potential of ventricular myocardial fibers. The complete model is constituted in part from the representation used by Beeler and Reuter [1] and from a simplified version of a model used by us to simulate the Purkinje fiber action potential [3]. The experimental results from the frog ventricular myocardial preparation were reconstructed successfully in the present study. It was also shown that the Purkinje fiber and ventricular myocardial action potentials could be simulated by means of qualitatively similar models. The major differences are a simpler representation of the potassium current and a more prominent role of the calcium current in the representation used for the ventricular myocardial fiber.