Minimal Functional Clusters Predict the Probability of Reentry in Cardiac Fibrotic Tissue

Cardiac fibrosis is a well-known arrhythmogenic condition which can lead to sudden cardiac death. Physically, fibrosis can be viewed as a large number of small obstacles in an excitable medium, which may create nonlinear wave turbulence or reentry. The relation between the specific texture of fibrosis and the onset of reentry is of great theoretical and practical importance. Here, we present a conceptual framework which combines functional aspects of propagation manifested as conduction blocks, with reentry wavelength and geometrical clusters of fibrosis. We formulate them into the single concept of minimal functional cluster and through extensive simulations show that it characterizes the path of reexcitation accurately, and importantly its size distribution quantitatively predicts the reentry probability for different fibrosis densities and tissue excitabilities. © 2021 American Physical Society.American Heart Association, AHA: 18POST33990040; Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, Minobrnauka: 075-15-2020-926; I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, MSMUF. P. acknowledges support from the American Heart Association (18POST33990040). Research at Sechenov University (A. V. P.) was financed by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation within the framework of state support for creation and development of World-Class Research Center “Digital biodesign and personalized healthcare” No. 075-15-2020-926