Heart Closed-Loop Model for the Assessment of Cardiac Pacing

We developed a closed-loop model of cardiac stimulation using a finite element model of the whole-heart embedded in the torso that is proposed as an useful tool for pacemaker design and testing. The electrical activity of the cardiac tissue is reproduced with a bidomain model incorporated with the FitzHugh-Nagumo equations. The finite element model is developed in Comsol Multiphysics, both in two and in three dimensions and then exported in Simulink environment where the pacemaker algorithm is implemented. To validate the model, we chose a demand inhibited pacemaker, which stimulates the myocardium only if the intrinsic activity of the heart is not revealed, but every type of pacemaker can be simulated. The model generates a controlled spontaneous activation in the sinoatrial node and it is also able to reproduce realistic electrocardiographic signals and the effects that the stimulation has on them.