A Framework to Assess the Influence of Different Cardiac Fibrosis Phenotypes and Border Zone on Arrhythmogenesis
Resumo
Current computational models often oversimplify cardiac fibrosis, lacking micro-architecture details. To address this, we present a scalable computational pipeline extending a histologically-calibrated Perlin noise generator to automatically construct focal fibrotic cores and functional border zones. Using this framework, we conducted preliminary 2D electrophysiological simulations under localized hypoxia to evaluate four distinct phenotypes. Initial results suggest that phenotype influences tissue vulnerability, with diffuse architectures exhibiting a higher incidence of reentries under the tested conditions. Furthermore, the framework successfully models geometrically constrained lesions, highlighting that variations in the total diseased area between global and focal models substantially alter the number of arrhythmic events. This work underscores the importance of incorporating spatial heterogeneity and appropriate boundary constraints in predictive computational modeling.Referências
De Jong, S., van Veen, T. A., van Rijen, H. V., and de Bakker, J. M. (2011). Fibrosis and cardiac arrhythmias. Journal of cardiovascular pharmacology, 57(6):630–638.
Lawson, B. A., Drovandi, C., Burrage, P., Bueno-Orovio, A., Dos Santos, R. W., Rodriguez, B., Mengersen, K., and Burrage, K. (2024). Perlin noise generation of physiologically realistic cardiac fibrosis. Medical Image Analysis, 98:103240.
Oliveira, R. S., Alonso, S., Campos, F. O., Rocha, B. M., Fernandes, J. F., Kuehne, T., and Dos Santos, R. W. (2018). Ectopic beats arise from micro-reentries near infarct regions in simulations of a patient-specific heart model. Scientific reports, 8(1):16392.
Ravassa, S., Lopez, B., Treibel, T. A., San Jose, G., Losada-Fuentenebro, B., Tapia, L., Bayes-Genis, A., Diez, J., and Gonzalez, A. (2023). Cardiac fibrosis in heart failure: Focus on non-invasive diagnosis and emerging therapeutic strategies. Molecular aspects of medicine, 93:101194.
Sachetto, R., Alonso, S., and Dos Santos, R. W. (2018). Killing many birds with two stones: hypoxia and fibrosis can generate ectopic beats in a human ventricular model. Frontiers in Physiology, 9:764.
Sachetto Oliveira, R., Martins Rocha, B., Burgarelli, D., Meira Jr, W., Constantinides, C., and Weber dos Santos, R. (2018). Performance evaluation of gpu parallelization, space-time adaptive algorithms, and their combination for simulating cardiac electrophysiology. International journal for numerical methods in biomedical engineering, 34(2):e2913.
Shaw, R. M. and Rudy, Y. (1997). Electrophysiologic effects of acute myocardial ischemia: a mechanistic investigation of action potential conduction and conduction failure. Circulation research, 80(1):124–138.
Ten Tusscher, K. H. and Panfilov, A. V. (2006). Alternans and spiral breakup in a human ventricular tissue model. American Journal of Physiology-Heart and Circulatory Physiology, 291(3):H1088–H1100.
Lawson, B. A., Drovandi, C., Burrage, P., Bueno-Orovio, A., Dos Santos, R. W., Rodriguez, B., Mengersen, K., and Burrage, K. (2024). Perlin noise generation of physiologically realistic cardiac fibrosis. Medical Image Analysis, 98:103240.
Oliveira, R. S., Alonso, S., Campos, F. O., Rocha, B. M., Fernandes, J. F., Kuehne, T., and Dos Santos, R. W. (2018). Ectopic beats arise from micro-reentries near infarct regions in simulations of a patient-specific heart model. Scientific reports, 8(1):16392.
Ravassa, S., Lopez, B., Treibel, T. A., San Jose, G., Losada-Fuentenebro, B., Tapia, L., Bayes-Genis, A., Diez, J., and Gonzalez, A. (2023). Cardiac fibrosis in heart failure: Focus on non-invasive diagnosis and emerging therapeutic strategies. Molecular aspects of medicine, 93:101194.
Sachetto, R., Alonso, S., and Dos Santos, R. W. (2018). Killing many birds with two stones: hypoxia and fibrosis can generate ectopic beats in a human ventricular model. Frontiers in Physiology, 9:764.
Sachetto Oliveira, R., Martins Rocha, B., Burgarelli, D., Meira Jr, W., Constantinides, C., and Weber dos Santos, R. (2018). Performance evaluation of gpu parallelization, space-time adaptive algorithms, and their combination for simulating cardiac electrophysiology. International journal for numerical methods in biomedical engineering, 34(2):e2913.
Shaw, R. M. and Rudy, Y. (1997). Electrophysiologic effects of acute myocardial ischemia: a mechanistic investigation of action potential conduction and conduction failure. Circulation research, 80(1):124–138.
Ten Tusscher, K. H. and Panfilov, A. V. (2006). Alternans and spiral breakup in a human ventricular tissue model. American Journal of Physiology-Heart and Circulatory Physiology, 291(3):H1088–H1100.
Publicado
01/06/2026
Como Citar
COUTO, Guilherme M.; CAMPOS, Joventido O.; SANTOS, Rodrigo W. dos.
A Framework to Assess the Influence of Different Cardiac Fibrosis Phenotypes and Border Zone on Arrhythmogenesis. In: SIMPÓSIO BRASILEIRO DE COMPUTAÇÃO APLICADA À SAÚDE (SBCAS), 26. , 2026, Ouro Preto/MG.
Anais [...].
Porto Alegre: Sociedade Brasileira de Computação,
2026
.
p. 1463-1468.
ISSN 2763-8952.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5753/sbcas.2026.21656.
