Seeking a model for study of arrhythmia induction by nonuniform polarization

Nonuniform distribution of changes in transmembrane potential (/spl Delta/Vm) has been shown to contribute to the induction of arrhythmias in studies using point and intracardiac stimulation. Our objective was to produce a model for the study of arrhythmia induction in isolated, perfused rabbit myocardium using line stimulation during the relative refractory period. The line stimulation electrode was oriented perpendicular to myofibers on the left ventricle of 4 rabbit hearts. We produced adjacent regions of nonuniform polarization in each trial.