A QUANTITATIVE DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE AREA OF RABBIT VENTRICULAR ACTION POTENTIALS AND THE PATTERN OF STIMULATION

Abstract

Intracellular microelectrodes were used to record action potentials from fibres of the isolated rabbit right ventricle and the areas of the action potentials were measured. The action potential area was found to depend in a reproducible way on the preceding pattern of stimulation. A mathematical model reproducing all the observed changes in the action potential area was developed. In the model the action potential area is taken as a linear function of the product of two time and stimulation dependent variables, M and N. The behaviour of each variable between action potentials is described by the solution of a second order differential equation. During each action potential the variables are assumed to change discontinuously, the magnitudes of the discontinuous changes being given by a set of subsidiary equations. It was found that the behaviour of all the fibres tested was described by the same set of equations, each single fibre being characterized by a set of ten independent constants.