IEEE transactions on bio-medical engineering
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IEEE Trans Biomed Eng · Dec 1993
An acoustical guidance and position monitoring system for endotracheal tubes.
A prototype instrument to guide the placement and continuously monitor the position of an endotracheal tube (ETT) was developed. An incident audible sound pulse is introduced into the proximal ETT and detected as it travels down the ETT via a miniature microphone located in the wall. This pulse is then emitted from the tube tip into the airways and the reflected signal from the airways is detected by the microphone. ⋯ The amplitude and polarity of an additional reflection that occurs at the ETT tip is used to estimate the cross-sectional area of the airway in which the ETT is placed. This combined information allows discrimination between tracheal and bronchial intubation and can be used to insure an adequate fit between the ETT and trachea. The instrument has proven extremely reliable in multiple intubations in eight canines and offers the potential to noninvasively and inexpensively monitor ETT position in a continuous manner.
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IEEE Trans Biomed Eng · Oct 1993
Sensory nerve recording for closed-loop control to restore motor functions.
A method is developed for using neural recordings to control functional electrical stimulation (FES) to nerves and muscles. Experiments were done in chronic cats with a goal of designing a rule-based controller to generate rhythmic movements of the ankle joint during treadmill locomotion. Neural signals from the tibial and superficial peroneal nerves were recorded with cuff electrodes and processed simultaneously with muscular signals from ankle flexors and extensors in the cat's hind limb. ⋯ Simple rule-bases will probably be chosen for initial applications to human patients. However, more complex FES applications require more complex rule-bases and better mapping of continuous neural recordings and muscular activity. Adaptive neural networks have promise for these more complex applications.
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IEEE Trans Biomed Eng · Aug 1993
Simultaneous measurement of intracellular calcium and electrical activity from patterned neural networks in culture.
Multisite extracellular electrical activity and intracellular calcium were recorded simultaneously. Electrical signals were measured using microelectrode array substrates. A novel cell positioning technique was combined with a method for controlling neurite outgrowth, which allowed cell-electrode contacts to be established easily, thus facilitating the electrical recording. ⋯ Under low-magnesium conditions, cultured rat cortical neurons showed periodic transients of fluo-3 fluorescence, which were synchronized with the periodic bursting observed electrically. The intervals between bursts could be determined by electrical stimulation through the substrate electrodes. The results suggest that functional synaptic connections are formed in the culture system.
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The cable model for electrical stimulation near the terminal of a passive fiber is derived for excitation by an arbitrary, time-varying, applied extracellular field. Unless the termination impedance is comparable to that of mammalian node of Ranvier, the end-conditions require the longitudinal intracellular current at the fiber terminal to be negligibly small. ⋯ Chronaxie for stimulation near the terminal may be much smaller than at a distance from the terminal and the strength-duration curve may be nonmonotonic. These differences may have significant implications for any application of electrical stimulation where fiber terminations may play a role in the excitatory process.
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IEEE Trans Biomed Eng · Jul 1993
Comparative StudyExcitation of dorsal root fibers in spinal cord stimulation: a theoretical study.
In epidural spinal cord stimulation it is likely that not only dorsal column fibers are activated, but that dorsal root fibers will be involved as well. In this investigation a volume conductor model of the spinal cord was used and dorsal root fibers were modeled by an electrical network including fiber excitation. The effects of varying some geometrical fiber characteristics, as well as the influence of the dorsal cerebrospinal fluid layer and the electrode configuration on the threshold stimulus for their excitation, were assessed. ⋯ The results of this modeling study predict that, besides the well known influence of fiber diameter, the curvature of the dorsal root fibers and the angle between these fibers and the spinal cord axis were of major influence on their threshold values. Because of these effects, threshold stimuli of dorsal root fibers were relatively low as compared to dorsal column fibers. Excitation of the dorsal root fibers occurred near the entry point of the fibers.