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Abstract

The conventional termination technique of life threatening cardiac arrhythmia like ventricular
fibrillation is the application of a high-energy electrical defibrillation shock, coming along with severe
side-effects. In order to improve the current treatment reducing these side-effects, the application
of pulse sequences of lower energy instead of a single high-energy pulse are promising candidates.
In this study, we show that in numerical simulations the dose-response function of pulse sequences
applied to two-dimensional spiral wave chaos is not necessarily monotonously increasing, but exhibits
a non-trivial frequency dependence. This insight into crucial phenomena appearing during termination
attempts provides a deeper understanding of the governing termination mechanisms in general, and
therefore may open up the path towards an efficient termination of cardiac arrhythmia in the future.