Spectral analysis of simulated QRS complex using a model of the heart's ventricles with a fractal conduction system

Geometrical and functional overview of the ventricular conduction system of the heart reveals that it shares structures common to a tree with repeatedly bifurcating ‘branches’, decreasing in length with each generation. A model of the heart's ventricles which consists of muscle cells and a fractal conduction system is described. The model is activated and the dipole potential generated by adjacent activated and resting cells is calculated to obtain a QRS complex. Analysis of the frequency spectrum of the simulated QRS complex reveals an enhancement in the high frequency components as generations are added to the conduction system. It was also found that the power spectrum of the QRS complex shows an inverse power law, with a highly correlated straight line with a slope of approximately −4. Similar results were obtained using real QRS data from healthy subjects.