Parameter estimation for a phenomenological model of the cardiac action potential

Abstract

The action potential of a cardiac cell is made up of a complex balance of ionic currents which ow across the cell membrane in response to electrical excitation of the cell. Biophysically detailed mathematical models of the action potential have grown larger in terms of the variables and parameters required to model new findings in subcellular ionic mechanisms. The fitting of parameters to such models has seen a large degree of parameter and module re-use from earlier models. An alternative method for modelling electrically excitable cardiac tissue is a phenomenological model, which reconstructs tissue level action potential wave behaviour without subcellular details. A new parameter estimation technique to fit the morphology of the action potential in a four variable phenomenological model is presented. An approximation of a nonlinear ordinary differential equation model is established that corresponds to the given phenomenological model of the cardiac action potential. The parameter estimation problem is converted into a minimisation problem for the unknown parameters. A modified hybrid Nelder-Mead simplex search and particle swarm optimisation then solves the minimisation problem for the unknown parameters. The successful fitting of data generated from a well known biophysically detailed model is demonstrated. A successful fit to an experimental action potential recording that contains both noise and experimental artefacts is also produced. The parameter estimation method's ability to fit a complex morphology to a model with substantially more parameters than previously used is established. © Austral. Mathematical Soc. 2011.