DESIGN PRINCIPLES OF A LOW-VOLTAGE CARDIAC DEFIBRILLATOR BASED ON THE EFFECT OF FEEDBACK RESONANT DRIFT

We explore the possibility of exploiting the phenomenon of the resonant drift of autowave vortices in the design of low-voltage cardiac defibrillators. The problem of reflection of resonantly drifting vortices by inexcitable boundaries is overcome by using feedback. Numerical studies show that the voltage needed for defibrillation by this method may be substantially less (by an order of magnitude) than that used in conventional single-shock defibrillation. © 1994 Academic Press. All rights reserved.