Suppression of cardiac alternans by alternating-period-feedback stimulations

Alternans response, comprising a sequence of alternating long and short action potential durations in heart tissue, seen during rapid periodic pacing can lead to conduction block resulting in potentially fatal cardiac failure. A method of pacing with feedback control is proposed to reduce the alternans and therefore the probability of subsequent cardiac failure. The reduction is achieved by feedback control using small perturbations of constant magnitude to the original, alternans-generating pacing period T, viz., using sequences of two alternating periods of T+ΔT and T-ΔT, with ΔT