Pulmonary Vein Reentry Applets
These interactive movie applets show reentry in a single pulmonary vein
arising from heterogeneous venous conduction.
Each movie can be rotated by using the mouse while playing to view
the movie from any angle or by checking the Rotate box for continuous smooth rotation.
Check the Start box on the applet to begin.
3D interactive movie corresponding to Figure 2.
Pulmonary vein (PV)-driven activation of the left atrium (LA) due to heterogeneous venous conduction
following a premature beat.
The first sinus beat activates the LA and propagates heterogeneously along the PV,
following which the premature beat at time=285 ms re-activates the LA while the vein
is primarily refractory from the first beat.
Due to the combination of this refractoriness and the heterogeneous conduction within the vein,
only a small region of the vein is activated by the premature stimulus.
As more of the vein recovers, this small activation in some regions is able to propagate
slowly around and then along the vein back toward the LA.
After finally reaching the LA-PV junction, it is able to propagate into the LA,
which has already recovered from the premature beat.
In this sustained reentry,
propagation continues within the vein and activates the LA repetitively with a cycle length of 250 ms.
Vein length is 3 cm and circumference is 2 cm, with 25 percent longitudinal and 70 percent transverse disconnections.
3D interactive movie corresponding to Figure 3.
PV-driven activation of the LA without the necessity of a premature beat.
The sinus beat propagates heterogeneously along the vein.
Because of disconnections, some portions of the vein are not activated as the wave propagates
away from the LA but instead but are activated as the wave turns and re-enters down the length
of the vein toward the LA. The reentrant wave then activates the LA.
Vein length is 1 cm and circumference is 2 cm, with 30 percent longitudinal and 65 percent transverse disconnections.
Home