Modeling and simulation study on the treatment of sinus node ischemia by Chinese medicine Yiqi Tongyang

Sinus node ischemia is mainly characterized by slow heart rate, which is caused by ischemia-induced changes in electrophysiological properties and ion homeostasis leading to prolonged pacing cycle length. According to the available data, research on the mechanism of sinus node ischemia has been reported, but the report on the drug treatment of the disease is scarce. In order to reveal the effect of Chinese medicine (Yiqi Tongyang) in sinus node ischemia, this paper uses rabbit sinus node center and periphery models to simulate the effects of medium and high doses of the Chinese medicine in ischemia at the sub-cellular, cellular and tissue levels, and to simulate the changes in cellular action potentials and tissue pacing functions to predict the drug efficacy. Simulation results showed that 1) the Chinese medicine can effectively shorten the pacing cycle, with negligible effect on the duration of cellular action potential and maximal diastolic potential, but can cause a decrease in the maximal depolarization velocity; 2) it accelerated the activation of ischemic sinus node-atrum tissue, so that the electrical excitatory activity of the tissue return to the normal state; 3) by comparing the simulation results of medium and high doses of the Chinese medicine, it was shown that the high dose group did not increase the heart rate significantly, while the medium dose group had a significant effect on the regulation of heart rate, indicating that the Chinese medicine (Yiqi Tongyang) can effectively treat sinus node ischemic disease.