Electrophysiology of living organs from first principles

Abstract

Based on the derivation of the macroscopic Maxwell's equations by spatial averaging of the microscopic equations, we discuss the electrophysiology of living organs. Other methods of averaging (or homogenization) like the bidomain model are not compatible with Maxwell's theory. We also point out that modeling the active cells by source currents is not a suitable description of the situation from first principles. Instead, it turns out that the main source of the measured electrical potentials is the polarization charge density which exists at the membranes of the active cells and adds up to a macroscopic polarization. The latter is the source term in the Laplace equation, the solution of which gives the measured far-field potential. As a consequence it is the polarization or dipole density which is best suited for localization of cardiac arrhythmia.