Biomedical subjects

Peter V E McClintock

Publications and source records attributed to Peter V E McClintock.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2004

Nonlinear cardio-respiratory interactions revealed by time-phase bispectral analysis.

Bispectral analysis based on high order statistics, introduced recently as a technique for revealing time-phase relationships among interacting noisy oscillators, has been used to study the nature of the coupling between cardiac and respiratory activity. Univariate blood flow signals recorded simultaneously by laser-Doppler flowmetry on both legs and arms were analysed. Coupling between cardiac and respiratory activity was also checked by use of bivariate data and computation of the cross-bispectrum between the ECG and respiratory signals. Measurements were made on six healthy males aged 25-27 years. Recordings were taken during spontaneous breathing (20 min), and during paced respiration at frequencies both lower and higher than that of spontaneous respiration (either two or three recordings with a constant frequency in the interval between 0.09 and 0.35 Hz). At each paced frequency recordings were taken for 12 min. It was confirmed that the dynamics of blood flow can usefully be considered in terms of coupled oscillators, and demonstrated that interactions between the cardiac and respiratory processes are weak and time-varying, and that they can be nonlinear. Nonlinear coupling was revealed to exist during both spontaneous and paced respiration. When present, it was detected in all four blood flow signals and in the cross-bispectrum between the ECG and respiratory signal. The episodes with nonlinear coupling were detected in 11 out of 22 recordings and lasted between 19 s in the case of high frequency (0.34 Hz) and 106 s in the case of low frequency paced respiration (0.11 Hz).

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Wavelet analysis of blood flow dynamics: effect on the individual oscillatory components of iontophoresis with pharmacologically neutral electrolytes.

Iontophoresis currents are used in the transcutaneous delivery of vasoactive substances for noninvasive assessment of skin vascular properties. The blood flow rate can be recorded by laser Doppler flowmetry (LDF), its average value and the amplitudes of its oscillatory components being used to evaluate the effect of the drugs. Because non-drug-specific, current-induced, vasodilation could confound the interpretation of the response, we have investigated the effect of currents of both polarities on the spectral components of the LDF signal in the absence of vasoactive substances. It was recorded for healthy volunteers with both high conductance (5 mol/l NaCl) and low conductance (deionized water) electrolytes. The oscillatory components were analysed by wavelet transform within 0.0095-1.6 Hz, divided into five sub-intervals. Only cathodal iontophoresis with deionized water increased the oscillatory energy and amplitude. It did so at all frequencies, but none of the sub-intervals associated with vasodilation (0.0095-0.145 Hz) was selectively affected compared to the others.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Role of transdermal potential difference during iontophoretic drug delivery.

Potential differences have been measured during transdermal iontophoresis in order to establish the effect of voltage, as opposed to current, on cutaneous blood flow. It is known that, even in the absence of drugs, the iontophoresis current can sometimes produce increased blood flow. The role of voltage in this process is studied through single-ended measurements (between electrode and body) of the potential difference during iontophoresis with 100-microA, 20-s current pulses through deionized water, saturated 20.4% NaCl solution, 1% acetylcholine, and 1% sodium nitroprusside. It is found that the voltage needed to deliver the current varied by orders of magnitudes less than the differences in the conductance of these different electrolytes, and it is concluded that, at least for the present current protocol, the voltage as such is not an important factor in increasing the blood flow.

Acetylcholine↗

PubMed2003

Time-phase bispectral analysis.

Bispectral analysis, a technique based on high-order statistics, is extended to encompass time dependence for the case of coupled nonlinear oscillators. It is applicable to univariate as well as to multivariate data obtained, respectively, from one or more of the oscillators. It is demonstrated for a generic model of interacting systems whose basic units are the Poincaré oscillators. Their frequency and phase relationships are explored for different coupling strengths, both with and without Gaussian noise. The distinctions between additive linear or quadratic, and parametric (frequency modulated), interactions in the presence of noise are illustrated.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2003

Comment on "Signal-to-noise ratio gain in neuronal systems".

We discuss the gain in signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) recently reported by Liu et al. [Phys. Rev. E 63, 051912 (2001)] in the Hodgkin-Huxley neuronal model. We show first that the possibility of signal-to-noise ratio enhancements can be checked by consideration of the statistical characteristics of switching between the system states, and we examine how the SNR depends on the shape of a periodic signal. Second, we attempt to verify the SNR gain reported by Liu et al.: based on spectral calculations and analyses of switching statistics, we are unable to find any SNR gain in the Hodgkin-Huxley model.

Models, Neurological↗