Regional and frequency dependencies of force development in myocardium: a simulation study

Heart models are used to simulate the electromechanical behavior of the myocardium. The simulations improve the comprehension of both physiology and pathologies. A model of an anisotropic and inhomogeneous myocardial area is introduced, in which simulations of electrical excitation and force development are performed. The model is based on a modified Noble-Varghese-Kohl-Noble (1998) model of electrophysiology, the bidomain model for excitation propagation and the force model of Rice, Winslow and Hunter (1999). Simulations with this myocardial model show the dependencies of the force development on frequency and on regional differences in the heart wall.