OU Graduate has Dissertation Research Appear on the Cover of Heart Rhythm

Nachaat Mazeh, a December 2008 graduate of the Biomedical Sciences: Medical Physics PhD program, recently published part of his dissertation in the journal Heart Rhythm. In fact, a figure from his paper A Mechanism for the Upper Limit of Vulnerability (Volume 6, Pages 361-367) appeared on the cover of the issue. Mazeh, who was supervised by CBR member Brad Roth of the Department of Physics, used numerical simulations to determine how the heart responds to a strong electrical shock, such as occurs during defibrillation. In an accompaning editorial commentary, Peng-Sheng Chen and Shien-Fong Lin of the Krannert Institute of Cardiology in Indianapolis wrote that "These new mechanistic insights provide hope for further improvement of the efficacy of ventricular defibrillation."