Relating tortuocity and extracellular potentials in a two-dimensional model of ventricular myocardium

The effects of tortuocity imposed by dead cell strips on propagation characteristics and on extracellular field were studied in a two-dimensional (2D) model of ventricular myocardium. Small nonconducting openings in the dead cell strips effected propagation in various ways depending on their relative position with respect to the corridors created between them. Lower anisotropy ratios resulted in increased conduction delay. Finally it was shown that the peak ionic current, does not always coincide with the peak negative derivative of the extracellular potential.