Cardiovascular
Physiology
The
cardiovascular system is responsible for the collection, transport and distribution
of materials within the human body. It is a system of enormous complexity,
involving mechanical, biochemical and electrophysiological processes occuring
on scales ranging from subcellular to whole organs. Mathematical modeling
can play an important part in improving quantitative understanding of these
processes, and in describing the relationship between processes occurring
on small and large scales. Within this field, work at The University of Arizona
is focused on two main themes
- electrophysiology
and detection of cardiac arrhythmias; and
- blood flow and mass
transport in the microcirculation. Ventricular fibrillation and the structure
and dynamics of spiral waves are the subject of investigations carried out
by the research group led by A.T.Winfree.
He is one of the world's leading authorities on the behavior of excitable
media and has received the Einthoven award in 1989 for his contributions
to cardiology. The detection of arrhythmias by cardiomagnetism is being
investigated by M. Brio and collaborators. The group working on theoretical
studies of the microcirculation is led by
T.W.Secomb whose work is carried out in cooperation with several experimental
physiologists with whom he has long- standing collaborations.
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