Understanding and modelling the heart’s wiring system

Mapping cardiac conduction system disease (renewal)

The heart beat is produced by regular electrical pulses generated by the heart’s own wiring system. Changes during disease can lead to problems with the heart’s wiring system that causing erratic heart beats (arrhythmias) and in very serious cases, cardiac arrest. People with heart failure or a common arrhythmia called atrial fibrillation (AF) often have problems with their heart’s wiring system. AF happens when the electrical impulses in the heart fire off in a disorganised way. This irregular heart beat can increase a person’s chance of having a stroke by up to five times. Professor Mark Boyett and the research teams at Manchester and Liverpool Universities are looking closely at what happens to the heart’s wiring system during heart disease. They are identifying molecular-level changes to the cells in the heart, and working out how these changes affect signals that are sent between the cells to generate the heartbeat. They will search for the underlying causes of the wiring problems using a rabbit model of heart disease, and will use the information to build a ‘map’ of the wiring system. This new map, together with other detailed information on the structure and electrical activity of the rabbit’s heart, will help the researchers build a ‘virtual heart’ using computer models that will simulate both healthy and diseased hearts, and their beats. It will offer a new way to identify and test potentially new therapies that could help keep more hearts in rhythm in the future.