Removal of a Spiral Reentry by a Weak Electric Shock

Rotating waves underlie many life threatening cardiac arrhythmias. Cardiac chaos (fibrillation) can be controlled by applying a large damaging electric shock. It removes all waves, normal waves and reentries, in the entire heart. Anatomical reentries can be removed by anti-tachycardia pacing (ATP). To increase the success rate of ATP, it requires the knowledge of the position of the reentry. We show that the physics of electric field distribution between cardiac cells permits one to deliver an electric pulse exactly to the core of an anatomical reentry, without knowing its position. The energy needed is two orders less than defibrillation energy.