Parallel simulation of the synchronization of heterogeneous cells in the sinoatrial node

Summary The cells of the sinoatrial node (SAN) are self‐excitable entities that show a coupled electrical pattern that consists of the synchronized activation of action potentials that determine the heart rate. To accurately describe the behavior of cell membrane proteins, theoretical biophysicists have devoted themselves to the study of the electrical activity of individual cells, which involves solving a large number of coupled differential equations. This computational limitation makes the modeling of a large number of cells unattainable, since the intracellular distribution of Ca2+ must be considered and this fact increases in grand extent the number of differential equations involved. In this work, we explore different parallel architectures (using OpenMP, MPI, and CUDA libraries) to show advances in the computational modeling and simulation of the SAN using a multicellular array in which the cells are endowed of heterogeneous conductances and are electrically coupled, considering a variable connectivity among them.