Advanced
Technical
IVT
Wavefront Collision
The meeting and mutual annihilation of two propagating electrical impulses in cardiac tissue.
Full Definition
A fundamental electrophysiological phenomenon where two electrical wavefronts propagating through cardiac tissue encounter each other and mutually extinguish, as neither can proceed through tissue that is refractory from the other wavefront. This principle is crucial in understanding arrhythmia mechanisms and is exploited therapeutically in pacing maneuvers to terminate reentrant arrhythmias. Wavefront collision is also important in mapping techniques where deliberate collision points help define conduction pathways and circuit boundaries during electrophysiology studies.
In Context
- "Wavefront collision was observed when pacing from multiple sites resulted in midline collision zones." — Activation mapping report
- "The termination mechanism involved wavefront collision between the reentrant circuit and the paced impulse." — EP research paper
Also known as
wavefront annihilation
impulse collision
Don't confuse with
wave summation
wavefront fusion