Calcium alternans produced by increased sarcoplasmic reticulum refractoriness

Abstract

Despite the important role of electro-mechanical alternans in cardiac arrhythmogenesis, its molecular origin is not well understood. In this paper we want to study alternans that can be associated with alternations in the cytosolic calcium transient. To this end we study particularly, how a malfunction of Ryanodine Receptor (RyR) recovery time from in activation may induce beat-to-beat alternations in intracellular calcium concentration and how this could affect the stimulus propagation in inhomogeneous tissue, whose cells exhibit different calcium dynamics.