A finite volume method solution for the bidomain equations and their application to modelling cardiac ischaemia

Abstract

This paper presents an implementation of the finite volume method with the aim of studying subendocardial ischaemia during the ST segment. In this implementation, based on hexahedral finite volumes, each quadrilateral sub-face is split into two triangles to improve the accuracy of the numerical integration in complex geometries and when fibre rotation is included. The numerical method is validated against previously published solutions obtained from slab and cylindrical models of the left ventricle with subendocardial ischaemia and no fibre rotation. Epicardial potential distributions are then obtained for a half-ellipsoid model of the left ventricle. In this case it is shown that for isotropic cardiac tissue the degree of subendocardial ischaemia does not affect the epicardial potential distribution, which is consistent with previous findings from analytical studies in simpler geometries. The paper also considers the behaviour of various preconditioners for solving numerically the resulting system of algebraic equations resulting from the implementation of the finite volume method. It is observed that each geometry considered has its own optimal preconditioner.