Regional Differences in Ventricular Fibrillation in the Open-Chest Porcine Left Ventricle

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Abstract
It has been hypothesized that during ventricular fibrillation (VF), the fastest activating region, the dominant domain, contains a stable reentrant circuit called a mother rotor. This hypothesis postulates that the mother rotor spawns wavefronts that propagate to maintain VF elsewhere and implies that the ratio of wavefronts propagating off a region to those propagating onto it (propoff/propon) should be >1 for the dominant domain but PP<0.001). The mean conduction velocity vectors of the VF wavefronts pointed in the direction from the posterior to the anterior LV. Although these findings favor a dominant domain in the posterior LV, the facts that the anterior LV had a higher incidence of reentry than did the posterior LV and that the posterior LV did not have propoff/propon significantly different from 1 do not. Thus, quantitative regional differences are present over the porcine LV epicardium during VF. Although these differences are not totally consistent with the presence of a dominant domain within the LV free wall, the mean conduction velocity vector is consistent with one in the septum.