Is fibrillation chaos?

Circ Res. 1990 Oct;67(4):886-92. doi: 10.1161/01.res.67.4.886.

Abstract

Ventricular fibrillation is examined to determine whether it is an instance of deterministic chaos. Surface ECGs from dogs in fibrillation were used to generate a state space representation of fibrillation. Our analysis failed to identify a low-dimensional attractor that could be associated with fibrillation. The results suggest that fibrillation is similar to a nonchaotic random signal. We note, however, that such random-looking but nonchaotic behavior can also be generated by a nonlinear deterministic system.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Dogs
  • Electrocardiography
  • Mathematics*
  • Ventricular Fibrillation / physiopathology