Neurogastroenterology and motility disorders of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract encompass a broad spectrum of diseases involving the GI tract and central nervous system. They have varied pathophysiology, clinical presentation and management, and make up a substantial proportion of outpatient clinic visits. Typically, patients experience persistent symptoms referable to the GI tract despite normal endoscopic and radiologic findings. An appropriate evaluation is thus important in the patient's care. Advances in technology and understanding of the disease pathophysiology have provided better insight into the physiological basis of disease and a more rational approach to patient management. While technological advances serve to explain patients' persistent symptoms, they should be balanced against the costs of diagnostic tests. This review highlights the GI investigative modalities employed to evaluate patients with persistent GI symptoms in the absence of a structural lesion, with particular emphasis on investigative modalities available locally and the clinical impact of such tools.
Electrophysiology ; Endoscopy ; Esophagus ; physiopathology ; Gastric Emptying ; Gastroenterology ; instrumentation ; methods ; Gastrointestinal Diseases ; diagnosis ; Gastrointestinal Tract ; physiopathology ; Humans ; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration ; Intestine, Small ; physiopathology ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Here we describe and illustrate our methods for multi-channel in vivo recording in mice, including the fabrication of the microdrive array and the surgical procedure for implanting electrodes. The multi-channel microdrive is fabricated from printed circuit board base, screws, nuts and clamping screws. Rotation of the screw drives both the nut and the attached electrodes to move forward simultaneously. Each full turn of the screw corresponds to 280 µm in depth penetration. The recording electrodes are self-made tetrodes consisting 4 wires (13 µm in diameter). The major steps of headstage fabrication include: tetrode making, microdrive construction, headstage assembling and tetrode plating. The finished headstage is suitable for multi-channel recording in freely moving rodents with the modest weight and the adjustable number of recording electrodes. Additionally, the recording site is allowed to be manipulated after implantation at any time. In the latter part of this paper, we introduce the procedure of the implant surgery to record in bilateral hippocampus in mice. Using these headstages, we simultaneously recorded population activity in bilateral CA1 in freely behaving mice.
Animals ; Electrodes, Implanted ; Electrophysiology ; instrumentation ; Hippocampus ; Mice

Study on features of acupoints with resistance test in the past half century is reviewed in this article. Mechanism and technology of the method are introduced as well as its shortcomings. The determination method of signal transmission along meridians with the combination of electrical network theories and practice is advanced. And the result of a series experiments on one meridian at the superficial part of the body are given as well. Thus, it is concluded that the signals of the point-in/point-out and the signals along a non-meridian path with the same distance are significantly different, which gives a verification of the feasibility of the method by using electrical network theories to set out characteristics of signal transmission along meridians dynamically.
Acupuncture Points ; Electrophysiological Phenomena ; Electrophysiology ; instrumentation ; methods ; Humans ; Meridians ; Signal Transduction

According to the instruction of the operator, the designed programmable multichannel stimulator will deliver stimuli with an assigned amplitude and a proper width to the electrode-array in various modes. Each stimulation time is controlled by the internal timer of the MCU, while the stimulated electrodes' spatial parameter is controlled by the CPLD. Having abandoned conventional isolation using the transformer, we have adapted optical coupling and stable float ground connection to achieve the safety standard required by physiological measurements.
Electric Stimulation ; instrumentation ; methods ; Electric Stimulation Therapy ; instrumentation ; Electrodes, Implanted ; Electrophysiology ; instrumentation ; methods

This paper introduces the new research achievement and progress of electro-physiology in olfaction and gustation. Classical implements such as patch-clamp or glass pipette are not appropriate in the dynamic detection of cellular signal transportation. In view of this, we have analyzed the feasibilities and challenges of olfactory or gustatory cell-based biosensors such as field effect transistor (FET) and light addressable potentiometric sensor (LAPS). Finally we present the research work carried our in out lab and a future prospective on the development in this field.
Biosensing Techniques ; instrumentation ; methods ; Electrophysiology ; methods ; Humans ; Microchip Analytical Procedures ; methods ; Smell ; physiology ; Taste ; physiology

A wide-band patch probe excited by coaxial line, which is useful for noninvasive measurement of superficial tissues at high frequencies, is presented in this paper. Optimization of the probe is performed by genetic algorithm (GA) combined with Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD). Then the optimized round patch probe is used to measure reflection coefficient for 1-7 GHz. The measured results show some interesting phenomena, which are very useful for reconstruction of electric properties of superficial tissues.
Algorithms ; Electric Conductivity ; Electromagnetic Phenomena ; Electrophysiology ; instrumentation ; Equipment Design ; Humans ; Muscle, Skeletal ; physiology ; Skin Physiological Phenomena

An application of digital signal processor (DSP) in the visual electrophysiology record system is presented in this paper. The system's design and implementation are described in detail. Results of its simulation and the clinical experiments are acceptable.
Adult ; Algorithms ; Computer Simulation ; Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted ; instrumentation ; methods ; Electrophysiology ; instrumentation ; methods ; Equipment Design ; Evoked Potentials, Visual ; physiology ; Female ; Humans ; Ocular Physiological Phenomena ; Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted ; Software Design ; Vision, Ocular

In this paper, one method was introduced, which was a combination of the cue-related morphine addiction model and a technique for obtaining chronic extracellular recordings of single unit in freely moving rats. With the combination and improvement of this technique, we have successfully applied this new method to study the neuronal activity of the hippocampus CA1 region in morphine withdrawal rats. In all, we found some more accurate and objective cellular characteristics of hippocampal neurons, and considered these characteristics as one of electrophysiological indexes of morphine addiction rats.
Action Potentials ; physiology ; Animals ; Electrophysiology ; instrumentation ; Hippocampus ; physiopathology ; Morphine Dependence ; physiopathology ; psychology ; Neurons ; physiology ; Rats ; Substance Withdrawal Syndrome ; physiopathology ; psychology

In the experimental study on the electrophysiology and functions of heart in the animal, the thorax should be opened to expose the heart, at the same time natural breathing is maintained instead of artificial breathing. The key procedure of this new method is to avoid injuring the pleural cavity, so pneumothorax can be prevented. By means of this new method some subject studies have been finished.
Animals ; Dogs ; Electrophysiology ; instrumentation ; Heart ; physiology ; Models, Animal ; Rabbits ; Respiration ; Swine ; Thoracic Surgical Procedures ; Time Factors

The two main factors to affect the style of the recruitment are temporal recruitment and spatial recruitment. This study sought a new way to analyze the recruitment with the modern spectrum method. The abnormal spatial recruitment and temporal recruitment of varied injury degrees of intramuscular neuron were compared through the AR model. At last, AR coefficients were extracted and passed through BP artificial neuron network to classify different NEMG signals and good result was gained.
Action Potentials ; physiology ; Electromyography ; instrumentation ; methods ; Electrophysiology ; Humans ; Models, Neurological ; Models, Theoretical ; Muscle Contraction ; physiology ; Muscle, Skeletal ; innervation ; physiology ; Needles ; Neural Networks (Computer) ; Pattern Recognition, Automated ; Peripheral Nerve Injuries ; Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted ; instrumentation