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Comparisons of wave dynamics in Hodgkin-Huxley and Markov-state formalisms for the Sodium (Na) channel in some mathematical models for human cardiac tissue

We compare and contrast spiral- and scroll-wave dynamics in five different mathematical models for cardiac tissue. The first is the TP06 model, due to ten Tusscher and Panfilov, which is based on the Hodgkin-Huxley formalism; the remaining four are Markov-state models, MM1 WT and MM2 WT, for the wild-type (WT) Na channel, and MM1 MUT and MM2 MUT, for the mutant Na channel. Our results are based on extensive direct numerical simulations of waves of electrical activation in these models, in two- and three-dimensional (2D and 3D) homogeneous simulation domains and also in domains with localised heterogeneities, either obstacles with randomly distributed inexcitable regions or mutant cells in a wild-type background. Our study brings out the sensitive dependence of spiral- and scroll-wave dynamics on these five models and the parameters that define them. We also explore the control of spiral-wave turbulence in these models.