Search results for "beat"
showing 10 items of 229 documents
Optical multichannel monitoring of skin blood pulsations for cardiovascular assessment
2004
Time resolved detection and analysis of the skin back-scattered optical signals (reflection photoplethysmography or PPG) provide rich information on skin blood volume pulsations and can serve for cardiovascular assessment. The multichannel PPG concept has been developed and clinically verified in this work. Simultaneous data flow from several body locations allows to study the heartbeat pulse wave propagation in real time and to evaluate the vascular resistance. Portable two- and four-channel PPG monitoring devices and special software have been designed for real-time data acquisition and processing. The multi-channel devices were successfully applied for cardiovascular fitness tests and fo…
Recognition of Cardiac Arrhythmia by Means of Beat Clustering on ECG-Holter Recordings
2012
The follow-up of some cardiac diseases may be achieved by ECG-holter record analysis. A heartbeat clustering method can be used to reduce the usually high computational cost of such Holter analysis. This study describes a method aimed at cardiac arrhythmia recognition based on this approach, by means of unsupervised inspection of morphologically similar heartbeat groups. Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) is used as the feature selection method since the complexity increases exponentially with the number of features. A modification of the k-means algorithm was developed for centroid computation, taking into account heartbeat length changes. Experimental set consisted of ECG records from the…
Pancreatic islets from non-heart beating donor pig: Two-layer preservation method in an in vitro porcine model
2011
Purpose Pancreata from non-heart beating donors could represent an unlimited source of islets if their cell viability can be efficiently preserved during the time necessary to process the organs by the use of a better solution of preservation compared to the classic University of Wisconsin solution. The aim of this study was to determine whether it is possible to obtain functioning “alive islets” from non-heart-beating donors by comparing, on a porcine model, the classic “UW ice-store” method with a two-layer cold storage method (TLM) using oxygenated Perfluorocarbons (PFC) and UW. Methods Whole pancreata were harvested from 20 NHBDs female pigs with similar characteristics and preserved fo…
Blood-pressure variability in patients with obstructive sleep apnea: current perspectives
2018
Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is often associated with hypertension and other cardiovascular diseases. Blood pressure (BP) variability is part of the assessment of cardiovascular risk. In OSA, BP variability has been studied mainly as very short-term (beat-by-beat) and short-term (24-hour BP profile) variability. BP measured on consecutive heartbeats has been demonstrated to be highly variable, due to repeated peaks during sleep, so that an accurate assessment of nocturnal BP levels in OSA may require peculiar methodologies. In 24-hour recordings, BP frequently features a "nondipping" profile, ie, <10% fall from day to night, which may increase cardiovascular risk and occurrence of major…
Mitral Valve Repair Without Using Rings or Slings
1989
Reconstructive surgery of the mitral valve is still deemed superior to prosthetic replacement because of the lower operative risk as well as the fewer thromboembolic complications [1, 2]. Whereas closed or open commissurotomy of a stenosed mitral valve has been routine in the past and present [3], reconstructive measures for incompetent valves have been among those least often performed. The use of rigid or semi-flexible annular rings [4–9] has significantly contributed to progress in this field. However, these are not suitable for repair of all valvular lesions and undoubtedly have at least some of the negative features of prosthetic substitutes. We have therefore started a program of mitr…
The lipoprotein lipase activity in cultured beating heart cells of the post-natal rat.
1974
Summary The lipoprotein lipase (LPL) activity was studied in cultured beating heart cells of the post natal rat as a function of the culture age, from the freshly trypsinized cell suspension up to the 14th day of culture. The LPL activity remains at a practically stationary level during the first four days of culture, and then increases rapidly to reach a plateau, at a level 3–4 times higher at the 21th day of culturing. The significance of this enzymatic activity progression comparing to 3H thymidine incorporation from the point of view of cell differentiation is discussed. Our results suggest that after the 12th day of culture, cells contain their optimal enzymatic apparatus for lipid met…
Determination of Death in Execution by Lethal Injection in China.
2018
Abstract:Since 1997, execution in China has been increasingly performed by lethal injection. The current criteria for determination of death for execution by lethal injection (cessation of heartbeat, cessation of respiration, and dilated pupils) neither conform to current medical science nor to any standard of medical ethics. In practice, death is pronounced in China within tens of seconds after starting the lethal injection. At this stage, however, neither the common criteria for cardiopulmonary death (irreversible cessation of heartbeat and breathing) nor that of brain death (irreversible cessation of brain functions) have been met. To declare a still-living person dead is incompatible wi…
Primary ciliary dyskinesia assessment by means of optical flow analysis of phase-contrast microscopy images
2014
Primary ciliary dyskinesia implies cilia with defective or total absence of motility, which may result in sinusitis, chronic bronchitis, bronchiectasis and male infertility. Diagnosis can be difficult and is based on an abnormal ciliary beat frequency (CBF) and beat pattern. In this paper, we present a method to determine CBF of isolated cells through the analysis of phase-contrast microscopy images, estimating cilia motion by means of an optical flow algorithm. After having analyzed 28 image sequences (14 with a normal beat pattern and 14 with a dyskinetic pattern), the normal group presented a CBF of 5.2 +/- 1.6 Hz, while the dyskinetic patients presented a 1.9 +/- 0.9 Hz CBF. The cutoff …
Distinctive body perception mechanisms in high versus low symptom reporters: A neurophysiological model for medically-unexplained symptoms.
2020
Abstract Objective The neurophysiological processes involved in the generation of medically-unexplained symptoms (MUS) remain unclear. This study tested three assumptions of the perception-filter model contributing to MUS: (I.) increased bodily signal strength (II.) decreased filter function, (III.) increased perception. Methods In this cross-sectional, observational study, trait MUS were assessed by a web-based survey (N = 486). The upper and lower decile were identified as extreme groups of high (HSR; n = 29; 26 women; Mage = 26.0 years) and low symptom reporters (LSR; n = 29; 21 women; Mage = 28.4 years). Mean heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV), and cortisol awakening respo…
Functional brain imaging: a window into the visuo-vestibular systems
2007
Advances have been made in identifying how areas involved in processing vestibular, ocular motor, and visual information are represented in the human cortex as well as the cortical interaction between these systems in healthy subjects.While we know how some vestibular and ocular motor disorders modify visuo-vestibular interaction by changing the 'normal' cortical activation-deactivation patterns, it is still early days in functional magnetic resonance imaging studies of patients with specific disorders. Findings from current brain imaging studies of several vestibular, ocular motor, and cerebellar disorders are presented.The promise of more insights into the complex neuronal networks of the…