Analysis of mortality in myocytes subjected to multidirectional high intensity stimuli

• Grant number: 14/18798-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: November 01, 2014
• End date: October 31, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Biomedical Engineering - Bioengineering
• Principal Investigator: Pedro Xavier de Oliveira
• Grantee: José Américo Nabuco Leva Ferreira de Freitas
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Engenharia Elétrica e de Computação (FEEC). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The heart is an extremely important organ, and any malfunction may be lethal. The ventricular fibrillation, myocytes asynchronous activity, severely decreases heart's pumping capacity and may be able to quickly kill one. The only known therapy for fibrillation is the defibrillation, which consists of high intensity shocks application in the heart tissue. Researchers at the Biomedical Engineering Center at Unicamp have found that a mutidirectional shock might have the same success probability as a unidirectional one with higher intensity. This work aims to analyze the mortality in myocytes when subjected to multidirectional stimuli, and includes a stimulator able to produce 1.5kV pulses implementation.