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Biomedical subjects

A Portela

Publications and source records attributed to A Portela.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

Electronic system for the obtention of phase plane curves for action potentials.

This system is designed for the amplification of the bioelectrical signal, obtention of its derivative in respect to time, automatic brightness control for both beams of the oscilloscope, and stability. The system includes a central measuring section which is a modified Tektronix oscilloscope type 565. Automatic control of brightness as a function of sweeping speed allows photographic recordings.

Action Potentials↗

Automatic microelectrode compensator (AMC).

A solid-state system designed for compensation of asymmetry potentials between microelectrodes, for bioelectric measurements, is described. Advantages over the manual compensator are the following: synchronic compensation of electrodes, application to automatized systems against aging effects in electordes, high speed, and elimination of general muisances of manual circuits. Besides, the system allows to measure digitally the polarization difference and resting membrane potential with precision of +/- 1 mV.

Bioelectric Energy Sources↗

Toward a chronome of superfused pike pineals: about-weekly (circaseptan) modulation of circadian melatonin release.

In continuous darkness for about 5.5 days in eleven replications, the pineal shows neither only a decreasing trend nor only a damped circadian rhythm; there is an infradian modulation: after an initial decline, melatonin production increases again, with a pattern compatible with the assumption, for at least one cycle, that a built-in pineal "week" has a larger extent of predictable change than that of a pineal "day". Melatonin release from the isolated pike pineal reveals a circadian rhythm which, on the average, is damped, but demonstrable in the second half of a time series covering 5.5 days (P < 0.05). At fixed environmental temperatures of 10, 15, 19 or 20 degrees C (the latter two pooled), single and population mean cosinor analyses reject the assumptions of zero circaseptan and circadian amplitudes in the chronome of the pineal from the pike (Esox lucius L.). The circaseptan pattern is confounded by possible trends. The time series analyzed are brief, yet validate, by a one-way analysis of variance in plexograms as well as by cosinor, an about-weekly pattern, if not (yet) rhythm, on the basis of 745 determinations. The circaseptan- and circasemiseptan-to-circadian amplitude ratios are numerically larger than unity, on the average (2.014; 95% confidence interval, CI: 1.120 to 3.641 and 1.107; CI: 0.724 to 1.693, respectively). A positive correlation of the urinary excretion rate of a major breakdown product of melatonin of a cancer patient with a circulating cancer marker serving as a gauge of disease progression lends an oncologic perspective to the amplitude ratios of melatonin release in vitro here reported.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Circadian Rhythm↗

Spectral differences between epitopes in the cronomes of salivary CA130 and CA125.

Ovarian tumor markers CA125 and CA130 are here investigated in the search for harbingers of an elevated cancer risk or pre-cancer. A circadian rhythm of large amplitude is demonstrated for salivary CA125 and CA130 of a clinically healthy 28-year-old woman (AP). The circadian rhythms of both markers found in AP have a pattern similar to that of a patient (EH) with a müllerian cancer involving the ovary, with high values in the early morning and low values in the afternoon. Whereas acrophases occur approximately at the same circadian stage in both AP and EH, the MESOR and circadian amplitude are higher in EH as compared to AP. The circadian rhythm of salivary CA130 of AP is similar to that of other clinically healthy women. CA130 concentrations are lower than CA125 concentrations in unstimulated saliva (before rinsing of the mouth) in this clinically healthy woman (AP), and in other women studied herein. This difference between CA130 and CA125 concentrations is observed irrespective of circadian stage and irrespective of the concentration range of CA125 at the outset. After rinsing of the mouth, a statistically significant decrease in both CA130 and CA125 concentration is observed in AP and in another healty woman (GC) who collected saliva both before and after rinsing of the mouth.

Adult↗