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Cardiac physiology

A last wave from the dying heart

Nature volume 392, pages 20–21 (1998)Cite this article

Throughout our lives the heart beats rhythmically — synchronized contraction of the ventricles pumps blood through the body. But during the last few minutes of life (in almost all non-violent deaths), contraction of the ventricular muscle is no longer synchronized. Instead, the ventricles writhe and fibrillate at a frequency some ten times faster than that of the heart rate. If the fibrillating heart is held in your hand it feels like a ball of writhing worms, quivering chaotically. It no longer ejects blood, and death is imminent.

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Figure 1: Propagation of a simple re-entrant wave in an anatomically detailed model of the canine ventricle.

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  1. the Centre for Nonlinear Studies, University of Leeds, LS2 9JT, Leeds, UK

    Arun V. Holden

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  1. Arun V. Holden
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Holden, A. A last wave from the dying heart. Nature 392, 20–21 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/32044

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/32044

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