Influence of cardiac muscle anisotropy on extracellular potentials generated by dipolar sources: A simulation study

In order to study the effect of electrically anisotropie tissue on extracellular and extracardiac potentials we simulated the potential generated by a single dipole in a block of myocardium surrounded by a homogeneous conducting medium. The dipole represents a surface element of the oblique dipole layer model of the excitation wavefront. The block of myocardium is represented by a set of superimposed layers of parallel fibres with fibre direction rotating from epicardium to endocardium. A finite element approximation is proposed as solution of the Neumann problem for the Poisson's equation Lu=f where f represents the dipolar source.