Michael Guevara - Associate Professor

Research Area:  Cardiovascular Physiology

Research Description:

One way in which disturbances of the rhythm of the heart (cardiac arrhythmias) can arise is when there are one or more self-sustaining waves of electrical activity circulating in the heart.  Many of these rhythms (e.g. ventricular tachycardia and fibrillation) are apparently due to a particular type of reentrant wave called a spiral wave.  We simulate spiral waves on a computer using ionic models of electrical activity.  The ultimate goal is to understand how these abnormal waves start up and to develop novel strategies by which they can be controlled and perhaps even terminated. More details can be obtained from our web site: www.medicine.mcgill.ca/physio/guevaralab.

Education:  B.Sc., B.Eng., Ph.D., McGill 

Recent Publications:
(and PDF file links)

Croisier M.R., Guevara M.R., and Dauby, P.C.
Bifurcation analysis of a periodically forced relaxation oscillator: Differential model versus phase-resetting map. Phys. Rev. E 79:016209-1-016209-20 (2009)

Gonzalez, H., Arce, A., and Guevara, M.R.
Phase resetting, phase locking, and bistability in the periodically driven saline oscillator: Experiment and model. Phys. Rev. E. 78:036217-1-036217-13(2008).

López A., Arce H., and Guevara M.R.
Rhythms of high-grade block in an ionic model of a strand of regionally ischemic ventricular muscle. J. Theor. Biol. 249:29-45 (2007).

Lerma C., Krogh-Madsen T., Guevara M.R., and Glass L.
Stochastic aspects of cardiac arrhythmias. J. Stat. Phys. 128:347-374 (2007).

Krogh-Madsen T., Schaffer P., Skriver A.D., Taylor L.K., Pelzmann B., Koidl B., Guevara M.R.
An ionic model for rhythmic activity in small clusters of embryonic chick ventricular cells. Am. J. Physiol. 289:H398-413 (2005).

Krogh-Madsen T, Glass L, Doedel E, Guevara MR
Apparent discontinuities in the phase-resetting response of cardiac pacemakers. J. theor. Biol. 230:499-519 (2004).

Guevara, MR
Bifurcations involving fixed points and limit cycles in biological systems.  In "Nonlinear Dynamics in Physiology and Medicine", edited by Beuter A, Glass L, Mackey MC, Titcombe MS. Springer-Verlag, New York, pp. 41-85 (2003).

Guevara MR
Dynamics of Excitable Cells. In: "Nonlinear Dynamics in Physiology and Medicine", edited by Beuter A, Glass L, Mackey MC, Titcombe MS. Springer-Verlag, New York, pp. 87-121 (2003).

Arce H, López A, Guevara MR
Triggered alternans in an ionic model of ischemic cardiac ventricular muscle. Chaos 12:807-818 (2002).

Arce H, Xu A, González H, Guevara MR
Alternans and higher-order rhythms in an ionic model of a sheet of ischemic ventricular muscle. 
Chaos 10:411-426 (2000).

Yehia AR, Jeandupeux D, Alonso F, Guevara MR
Hysteresis and bistability in the direct transition from 1:1 to 2:1 rhythm in periodically driven single ventricular cells.
Chaos 9:916-931 (1999).

Xu A,  Guevara MR  
Two forms of spiral-wave activity in an ionic model of ischemic ventricular myocardium.  
Chaos 8: 157-174 (1998).

Yehia AR, Shrier A, Lo KC, Guevara MR
Transient outward current contributes to Wenckebach-like rhythms in isolated rabbit ventricular cells.
Am. J. Physiol. 273:H1-11 (1997).

Guevara  MR 
Chaos in electrophysiology.   In: "Concepts and Techniques in Bioelectric Measurements: Is the Medium Carrying the Message?", edited by Billette J, LeBlanc  A.-R..  Editions de l'Ecole Polytechnique, Montreal, pp. 67-87  (1997).

Kaplan DT,  Clay JR,  Manning T,  Glass L,  Guevara MR, Shrier A
Subthreshold dynamics in periodically stimulated squid giant axons.
Phys. Rev. Lett. 76:4074-4077 (1996). 

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