Application of Muscle/Nerve Stimulation in Health and Disease
The first evidence that electrical changes can cause muscles to contract was p- vided by Galvani (1791). Galvani’s ideas about ‘animal electricity’ were explored during the 19th and 20th century when it was firmly established that ‘electricity’ is one of
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Advances in Muscle Research Volume 4
Series Editor G.J.M. Stienen, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Application of Muscle/Nerve Stimulation in Health and Disease
By
Gerta Vrbová University College Medical School, London, UK
Olga Hudlicka University of Birmingham Medical School, Birmingham, UK
and
Kristin Schaefer Centofanti JKC Research Partnership, London, UK
Kristin Schaefer Centofanti JKC Research Partnership London, UK
Gerta Vrbová University College Medical School London, UK Olga Hudlicka University of Birmingham Medical School Birmingham, UK
ISBN: 978-1-4020-8232-0
e-ISBN: 978-1-4020-8233-7
Library of Congress Control Number: 2008922907 © 2008 Springer Science + Business Media B.V. No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Printed on acid-free paper 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 springer.com
Acknowledgements
Without the help of Dr. Gillian Knight we would have been unable to complete the manuscript and cope with all the vagaries of our computers. Discussions with Dr. Milan Dimitrijevic pinpointed important points regarding the application of basic science to human physiology and treatment. We are grateful to Jorge Centofanti for his encouragement and help during the preparation of this manuscript. We are grateful to Ultratone for giving permission to reproduce the drawings in Chapter 4.
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Introduction
The first evidence that electrical changes can cause muscles to contract was provided by Galvani (1791). Galvani’s ideas about ‘animal electricity’ were explored during the 19th and 20th century when it was firmly established that ‘electricity’ is one of the most important mechanisms used for communication by the nervous system and muscle. These researches lead to the development of ever more sophisticated equipment that could either record the electrical changes in nerves and muscles, or elicit functional changes by electrically stimulating these structures. It was indeed the combination of these two methods that elucidated many of the basic principles about the function of the nervous system. Following these exciting findings, it was discovered that electrical stimulation and the functions elicited by it also lead to long-term changes in the properties of nerves and particularly muscles. Recent findings help us to understand the mechanisms by which activity induced by electrical stimulation can influence mature, fully differentiated cells, in particular muscles, blood vessels and nerves. Electrically elicited activity determines the properties of muscle fibres by activating a sequence of signalling pathways that change the gene expression of the muscle. Thus, electrical activity graduated from a simple mechanism that is used
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