Cardiac arrhythmias affect millions of adults in the U.S. each year. This irregularity
in the beating of the heart is often caused by dysregulation of calcium in
cardiomyocytes, the cardiac muscle cell. Cardiomyocytes function through the
interplay between electrical excitation, calcium signaling, and mechanical contraction,
an overall process known as calcium-induced calcium release (CICR). A system of
seven coupled nonlinear time-dependent partial differential equations (PDEs),
which model physiological variables in a cardiac cell, link the processes of
cardiomyocytes. Through parameter studies for each component system at a time,
we create a set of values for critical parameters that connect the calcium
store in the sarcoplasmic reticulum, the effect of electrical excitation, and
mechanical contraction in a physiologically reasonable manner. This paper shows
the design process of this set of parameters and then shows the possibility
to study the influence of a particular problem parameter using the overall
model.