BACKGROUND: Afterload reduction is a cornerstone in the management of patients with heart failure (HF) and reduced ejection fraction. However, arterial load and the effect of HF therapies on afterload might vary between individuals. Tailoring vasoactive medicines to patients with HF based upon better understanding of arterial afterload may enable better individualization of therapy. METHODS AND RESULTS: Subjects with HF and reduced ejection fraction underwent aggressive titration of vasoactive HF therapies with assessment of central aortic waveforms analyzed using pulse wave, wave separation, and arterial reservoir models. Clinical response to treatment was assessed using the 6-minute walk test distance, which increased in 25 subjects and decreased or remained unchanged in 13. Subjects with improvement on therapy displayed higher aortic pressure wave pulsatility (central pulse pressure [PP], reflected pressure wave, and reservoir pressure) at study entry compared with subjects without improvement (all P<0.05). Parameters derived by the arterial analysis methods were strongly correlated with one another and displayed similar ability to predict improvement. Aortic pressure pulsatility significantly decreased in subjects with functional improvement, whereas no change was observed in patients without functional improvement (P for interaction <0.05). These differences in arterial load at baseline and on therapy were not apparent from conventional brachial artery cuff pressure assessments. CONCLUSIONS: Increased aortic pressure wave pulsatility and greater decrease in pulsatility on treatment are associated with functional improvement in patients with HF and reduced ejection fraction receiving aggressive vasodilator titration. These differences are not identifiable using brachial cuff pressures. Central aortic waveform analysis may enable better individualization of vasoactive therapies in chronic HF and reduced ejection fraction. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT00588692.

• Klíčová slova
• aorta, arterial pressure, blood pressure, heart failure, heart rate,
• MeSH
• analýza pulzové vlny MeSH
• aorta účinky léků   patofyziologie   MeSH
• arteriální tlak účinky léků   MeSH
• časové faktory MeSH
• chronická nemoc MeSH
• chůze MeSH
• funkce levé komory srdeční účinky léků   MeSH
• jednoduchá slepá metoda MeSH
• lidé středního věku MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• obnova funkce MeSH
• pilotní projekty MeSH
• pulzatilní průtok účinky léků   MeSH
• senioři nad 80 let MeSH
• senioři MeSH
• srdeční selhání diagnóza   farmakoterapie   patofyziologie   MeSH
• tepový objem účinky léků   MeSH
• tolerance zátěže účinky léků   MeSH
• tuhost cévní stěny účinky léků   MeSH
• vazodilatancia škodlivé účinky   terapeutické užití   MeSH
• výsledek terapie MeSH
• zátěžový test MeSH
• Check Tag
• lidé středního věku MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• mužské pohlaví MeSH
• senioři nad 80 let MeSH
• senioři MeSH
• ženské pohlaví MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• randomizované kontrolované studie MeSH
• Geografické názvy
• Minnesota MeSH
• Názvy látek
• vazodilatancia MeSH

Different methods for galvanically isolated monitoring of the mains voltage waveform were evaluated. The aim was to determine the level of distortion of the output signal relative to the input signal and the suitability of each method for calculating active power values. Six fixtures were tested: two voltage transformers, an electronic circuit with a current transformer, a standalone current transformer, a simple circuit with optocouplers, and a circuit with an A/D-D/A converter with capacitive coupling. The input and output waveforms were mathematically analyzed by three methods: (1) calculating the spectral components of waveforms and the relative changes in their THD (total harmonic distortion) values, (2) determining the similarity of waveforms according to the size of the area bounded by the input and output waveform curves, and (3) determining the accuracy of the active power calculation based on the output waveform. The time difference in the zero crossing of the input and output signals was measured, and further calculations for the second and third method were performed on the zero-crossing time shift-corrected waveforms. Other aspects of selecting the appropriate type of monitoring element, such as power consumption or overall circuit complexity, were also evaluated.

• Klíčová slova
• THD, galvanic separation, line voltage, total harmonic distortion,
• MeSH
• elektronika * MeSH
• zdroje elektrické energie * MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH

Accurate and automated locations of microseismic events are desirable for many seismological and industrial applications. The analysis of microseismicity is particularly challenging because of weak seismic signals with low signal-to-noise ratio. Traditional location approaches rely on automated picking, based on individual seismograms, and make no use of the coherency information between signals at different stations. This strong limitation has been overcome by full-waveform location methods, which exploit the coherency of waveforms at different stations and improve the location robustness even in presence of noise. However, the performance of these methods strongly depend on the accuracy of the adopted velocity model, which is often quite rough; inaccurate models result in large location errors. We present an improved waveform stacking location method based on source-specific station corrections. Our method inherits the advantages of full-waveform location methods while strongly mitigating the dependency on the accuracy of the velocity model. With this approach the influence of an inaccurate velocity model on the results is restricted to the estimation of travel times solely within the seismogenic volume, but not for the entire source-receiver path. We finally successfully applied our new method to a realistic synthetic dataset as well as real data.

• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• práce podpořená grantem MeSH

Oxytocin is a nonapeptide hormone involved in numerous physiological functions. Real-time electrochemical measurements of oxytocin in living tissue are challenging due to electrode fouling and the large potentials needed to oxidize the tyrosine residue. Here, we used fast-scan cyclic voltammetry at carbon-fiber microelectrodes and flow injection analysis to optimize a waveform for the measurement of oxytocin. This optimized waveform employed an accumulation potential of -0.6 V, multiple scan rates, and a 3 ms holding potential at a positive, oxidizing potential of +1.4 V before linearly scanning the potential back to -0.6 V (versus Ag/AgCl). We obtained a limit of quantitation of 0.34 ± 0.02 μM, and our electrodes did not foul upon multiple injections. Moreover, to demonstrate the utility of our method, we measured the release of oxytocin, evoked by light application and mechanical perturbation, in whole brains from genetically engineered adult zebrafish that express channelrhodopsin-2 selectively on oxytocinergic neurons. Collectively, this work expands the toolkit for the measurement of peptides in living tissue preparations.

• MeSH
• dánio pruhované * MeSH
• karbonové vlákno MeSH
• mikroelektrody MeSH
• neurony MeSH
• oxytocin * MeSH
• zvířata MeSH
• Check Tag
• zvířata MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• práce podpořená grantem MeSH
• Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural MeSH
• Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S. MeSH
• Názvy látek
• karbonové vlákno MeSH
• oxytocin * MeSH

The study investigated second derivative of the finger arterial pressure waveform (SDFAP) in 120 healthy middle-aged subjects and in 24 subjects with essential hypertension. SDFAP consists of 5 sequential waves 'a'-'e'. Their normalized magnitudes (B/A, C/A, D/A, and E/A) were calculated. In multivariate regression analysis, B/A and C/A correlated only with age. D/A independently correlated with age, heart period, mean blood pressure (MBP), body height, and gender. E/A independently correlated with age and MBP. D/A and E/A were higher (0.42+/-0.16 vs. 0.33+/-0.14, p = 0.05 and 0.63+/-0.15 vs. 0.45+/-0.14, p < 0.001), while B/A and C/A were lower (1.04+/-0.16 vs. 1.20+/-0.17, p = 0.002 and 0.09+/-0.15 vs. 0.26+/-0.20, p = 0.001) in hypertensives compared to sex- and age-matched controls. After the adjustment for MBP, heart period, and body mass index (ANCOVA), independent discriminative power was preserved only for indices B/A and C/A (p = 0.001 and 0.021, respectively). Therefore, B/A and C/A provide additional information about simple clinical characteristics and might reflect the structural alteration of the arterial wall in hypertensive subjects.

• MeSH
• algoritmy * MeSH
• diagnóza počítačová metody   MeSH
• dospělí MeSH
• hypertenze diagnóza   patofyziologie   MeSH
• krevní tlak * MeSH
• lidé středního věku MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• měření krevního tlaku metody   MeSH
• numerická analýza pomocí počítače MeSH
• prsty ruky krevní zásobení   MeSH
• pulzatilní průtok MeSH
• reprodukovatelnost výsledků MeSH
• senzitivita a specificita MeSH
• statistika jako téma MeSH
• Check Tag
• dospělí MeSH
• lidé středního věku MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• mužské pohlaví MeSH
• ženské pohlaví MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• klinické zkoušky kontrolované MeSH
• práce podpořená grantem MeSH

PURPOSE: Coughing is related to voice problems, since it involves firm glottal closure, fast glottal opening, and high subglottic pressure and flow rate. In this study, the glottal area variation and movements of laryngeal structures during coughing and phonation are compared. METHODS: High-speed laryngoscopy recordings were made of a normophonic male participant with a healthy larynx producing a neutral vowel and coughing. Oral air pressure was registered in a mouthpiece, through which an endoscope was inserted into the pharynx. Electroglottography, acoustic, and pressure signals were recorded simultaneously. The glottal width variation at the membranous and cartilaginous parts of the glottis was derived from the high-speed images, and the strong vibration of the false vocal folds was also registered. RESULTS: In coughing, compared to ordinary vowel phonation in nearly the same sound pressure level (93-94 dB6cm), the glottal width was 25% larger at the middle of the vocal folds, the maximum glottal opening velocity was 39% higher, and the maximum glottal width declination rate during glottal closing was up to three times higher. The maximum acceleration was 40% higher, and the maximum deceleration was 47% higher. Fundamental frequency f0 was the highest (ca. 400 Hz) at the beginning of the first phase of a typical coughing process. During the last part of the coughing process, f0 decreased from ca. 250 Hz to ca. 85 Hz at the phonation offset. CONCLUSIONS: The remarkable increase in maximum glottal width declination rate implies much higher vocal fold loading in coughing compared to phonation.

• Klíčová slova
• Electroglottography (EGG), Glottal width waveform analysis, Laryngeal movement, Maximum glottal width declination rate, Oral air pressure, Vocal folds vibration,
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH

INTRODUCTION: In a recent publication, the phasegram, a bifurcation diagram over time, has been introduced as an intuitive visualization tool for assessing the vibratory states of oscillating systems. Here, this nonlinear dynamics approach is augmented with quantitative analysis parameters, and it is applied to clinical laryngeal high-speed video (HSV) endoscopic recordings of healthy and pathological phonations. METHODS: HSV data from a total of 73 females diagnosed as healthy (n = 42), or with functional dysphonia (n = 15) or with unilateral vocal fold paralysis (n = 16), were quantitatively analyzed. Glottal area waveforms (GAW) and left and right hemi-GAWs (hGAW) were extracted from the HSV recordings. Based on Poincaré sections through phase space-embedded signals, two novel quantitative parameters were computed: the phasegram entropy (PE) and the phasegram complexity estimate (PCE), inspired by signal entropy and correlation dimension computation, respectively. RESULTS: Both PE and PCE assumed higher average values (suggesting more irregular vibrations) for the pathological as compared with the healthy participants, thus significantly discriminating healthy group from the paralysis group (P = 0.02 for both PE and PCE). Comparisons of individual PE or PCE data for the left and the right hGAW within each subject resulted in asymmetry measures for the regularity of vocal fold vibration. The PCE-based asymmetry measure revealed significant differences between the healthy group and the paralysis group (P = 0.03). CONCLUSIONS: Quantitative phasegram analysis of GAW and hGAW data is a promising tool for the automated processing of HSV data in research and in clinical practice.

• Klíčová slova
• glottal area waveform, high-speed video endoscopy, nonlinear analysis, periodicity, phasegram,
• MeSH
• audiovizuální záznam metody   MeSH
• automatizace MeSH
• biomechanika MeSH
• časové faktory MeSH
• dospělí MeSH
• dysfonie diagnóza   patofyziologie   MeSH
• entropie MeSH
• fonace * MeSH
• hlasové řasy patofyziologie   MeSH
• interpretace obrazu počítačem metody   MeSH
• kvalita hlasu * MeSH
• laryngoskopie metody   MeSH
• lidé středního věku MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• nelineární dynamika MeSH
• ochrnutí hlasivek diagnóza   patofyziologie   MeSH
• periodicita MeSH
• prediktivní hodnota testů MeSH
• senioři MeSH
• studie případů a kontrol MeSH
• vibrace MeSH
• Check Tag
• dospělí MeSH
• lidé středního věku MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• senioři MeSH
• ženské pohlaví MeSH
• Publikační typ
• audiovizuální média MeSH
• časopisecké články MeSH

OBJECTIVE: This study investigated the possible linkage of intracerebrally recorded P3-like waveforms to the processes induced by stimulus perception or motor response formation. METHODS: Event-related potentials were recorded from 560 cerebral sites in 17 patients suffering from intractable epilepsy during visual oddball task. Potentials evoked by the target stimuli were sorted according to button-pressing response times, and the P3 waveform was analyzed both in stimulus-locked and response-locked averages, which were separately averaged for fast and slow responses. RESULTS: P3-like waveforms were identified in 180 sites in 17 patients. Three different types of P3-like waveforms, diffusely distributed within the brain, were found: (1) time-locked to the stimulus (30 sites in 11 patients); (2) time-locked to the motor response (52 sites in 13 patients); and (3) with ambiguous time relationship to stimulus and motor response (98 sites in 16 patients). CONCLUSIONS: The intracerebral P3-like waveform could represent different processes involved in performing active oddball tasks. Therefore, our results support the hypothesis that the P3 waveform registered by surface electrodes could be a heterogeneous phenomenon. SIGNIFICANCE: These results provide evidence that the P3 waveform is not only related to stimulus processing, which differs from what has been generally claimed in the literature.

• MeSH
• analýza rozptylu MeSH
• časové faktory MeSH
• dospělí MeSH
• duševní procesy fyziologie   MeSH
• elektroencefalografie metody   MeSH
• epilepsie patofyziologie   MeSH
• funkční lateralita fyziologie   MeSH
• lidé středního věku MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• mapování mozku MeSH
• mozková kůra anatomie a histologie   patofyziologie   MeSH
• pohybová aktivita fyziologie   MeSH
• psychomotorický výkon fyziologie   MeSH
• reakční čas fyziologie   MeSH
• světelná stimulace metody   MeSH
• zrakové evokované potenciály fyziologie   MeSH
• Check Tag
• dospělí MeSH
• lidé středního věku MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• mužské pohlaví MeSH
• ženské pohlaví MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• práce podpořená grantem MeSH
• srovnávací studie MeSH

In the present study, we studied whether analysis of the FAP (finger arterial pressure) waveform during supine rest discriminates subjects with recurrent VVS (vasovagal syncope) from healthy controls. Signal-averaged FAP waveforms (Finapres) were obtained in 32 head-up tilt-test-positive subjects with recurrent VVS (35 +/- 13 years) and in 32 sex- and age-matched healthy controls. The DT (time delay) between the systolic and diastolic peaks of the FAP waveform was measured and large artery SI (stiffness index) was calculated as a ratio of body height and DT. VVS patients had significantly shorter DT compared with controls (303 +/- 31 compared with 329 +/- 18 ms; P < 0.001) and higher SI (5.79 +/- 0.70 compared with 5.20 +/- 0.36 m/s; P < 0.001). The differences were independent of heart rate and blood pressure. SI > 5.45 m/s identified subjects with syncope with a sensitivity of 72% and a specificity of 84%. Age-corrected DT (cDT = DT + age-350) identified subjects with syncope with a sensitivity of 75% and a specificity of 84%. Combined use of cDT <0 ms and SI > 5.45 m/s increased sensitivity and specificity to 81% and 96% respectively. The discriminative power of FAP descriptors improved further when younger subjects were excluded. In subjects aged >30 years (median age), the combination of cDT and SI identified subjects with syncope with a sensitivity of 93% and a specificity of 100%. These results suggest that FAP descriptors during supine rest might be useful in the diagnosis of VVS in middle-aged subjects.

• MeSH
• ambulantní monitorování krevního tlaku * MeSH
• dospělí MeSH
• elektrokardiografie MeSH
• lidé středního věku MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• odpočinek MeSH
• pulz MeSH
• recidiva MeSH
• ROC křivka MeSH
• senzitivita a specificita MeSH
• studie případů a kontrol MeSH
• supinační poloha MeSH
• tělesná výška MeSH
• vazovagální synkopa diagnóza   MeSH
• Check Tag
• dospělí MeSH
• lidé středního věku MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• mužské pohlaví MeSH
• ženské pohlaví MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• práce podpořená grantem MeSH

Czech physiologist Penaz tried to overcome limitations of invasive pulse-contour methods (PCM) in clinical applications by a non-invasive method (finger mounted BP cuff) for continuous arterial waveform detection and beat-to-beat analysis. This discovery resulted in significant interest in human physiology and non-invasive examination of hemodynamic parameters, however has limitations because of the distal BP recording using a volume-clamp method. Thus, we propose a validation of beat-to-beat signal analysis acquired by novel a brachial occlusion-cuff (suprasystolic) principle and signal obtained from Finapres during a forced expiratory effort against an obstructed airway (Valsalva maneuver). Twelve healthy adult subjects [2 females, age = (27.2 ± 5.1) years] were in the upright siting position, breathe through the mouthpiece (simultaneously acquisition by brachial blood pressure monitor and Finapres) and at a defined time were asked to generate positive mouth pressure for 20 s (Valsalva). For the purpose of signal analysis, we proposed parameter a “Occlusion Cuff Index” (OCCI). The assumption about similarities between measured signals (suprasystolic brachial pulse waves amplitudes and Finapres’s MAP) were proved by averaged Pearson’s correlation coefficient (r- = 0.60, p < 0.001). The averaged Pearson’s correlation coefficient for the comparative analysis of OCCI between methods was r- = 0.88, p < 0.001. The average percent change of OCCI during maneuver: 8% increase, 19% decrease and percent change of max/min ratio is 35%. The investigation of brachial pulse waves measured by novel brachial blood pressure monitor shows positive correlation with Finapres and the parameter OCCI shows promise as an index, which could describe changes during beat-to-beat cardiac cycles.

• Klíčová slova
• cuff, non-invasive, occlusion, pulse wave,
• MeSH
• analýza pulzové vlny * MeSH
• arteria brachialis * fyziologie   MeSH
• dospělí MeSH
• krevní tlak fyziologie   MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• měření krevního tlaku metody   MeSH
• mladý dospělý MeSH
• prsty ruky MeSH
• srdeční frekvence MeSH
• studie proveditelnosti MeSH
• Check Tag
• dospělí MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• mladý dospělý MeSH
• ženské pohlaví MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH