OU student Nick Charteris publishes paper about the heart

Research opportunities for undergraduates exist throughout Oakland University, and in many cases the student becomes a coauthor on a peer-reviewed publication. For example, Nicholas Charteris—who performed research with CBR member Brad Roth, of the Department of Physics—recently published a paper titled “How Hyperpolarization and the Recovery of Excitability Affect Propagation through a Virtual Anode in the Heart” in the journal Computational and Mathematical Methods in Medicine (Volume 2011, Article ID 375059). Nick wrote this paper while an undergraduate medical physics major at OU, and is now a graduate student in OU’s Biomedical Sciences: Medical Physics PhD program, working with CBR member Evgeniy Khain and supported by a CBR graduate fellowship. The abstract of Nick’s paper is listed below.

"Researchers have suggested that the fate of a shock-induced wave front at the edge of a "virtual anode" (a region hyperpolarized by the shock) is a key factor determining success or failure during defibrillation of the heart. In this paper, we use a simple one-dimensional computer model to examine propagation speed through a hyperpolarized region. Our goal is to test the hypothesis that rapid propagation through a virtual anode can cause failure of propagation at the edge of the virtual anode. The calculations support this hypothesis and suggest that the time constant of the sodium inactivation gate is an important parameter. These results may be significant in understanding the mechanism of the upper limit of vulnerability."