Figure 3.

Ablation of a spiral wave in tissue with heterogeneous excitability can result in wave detachment with subsequent termination. A–B: A region of high excitability (within dashed circle) surrounded by tissue with low excitability (tissue excitability falls linearly in the radial direction with R₁=0.4 cm, R₂=0.8 cm, τ_d1 = 0.3 to τ_d2 = 0.42, 5cmx5cm domain). A: Snapshot of an activation front attached to a non-conducting disk of radius R=0.4 cm while B: Snapshot of activation following ablation of the region of higher excitability (R_abl=0.8 cm). The wave front finds itself in a region of low excitability, detaches from the obstacle and migrates out of the computational domain, resulting in the termination of reentry. C–E: Ablation of a spiral wave in a region of low excitability. Tissue excitability within the dashed region varies radially and is lower closer to the obstacle (R₁=0.4 cm, R₂=2.5 cm, τ_d1 = 0.35 to τ_d2 = 0.25, 5cmx5cm domain). C: Snapshot of a counter clockwise rotating activation front attached to a non-conducting zone of radius R=0.4 cm. D, E: Snapshots of the activation following ablation of a disk (radius R_abl=0.8 cm). The wave front encounters the wave back, resulting in block, indicated by the double bar. The wave front subsequently detaches from the obstacle and migrates out of the computational domain, resulting in the termination of reentry (not shown). Scalebars: 1cm.