AJP - Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, Vol 257, Issue 4 958-R963, Copyright © 1989 by American Physiological Society
Microprocessor-based analysis of sympathetic nerve traffic
D. R. Brown and D. C. Randall
Center for Biomedical Engineering, University of Kentucky, Lexington 40506-0070.
Two systems based on microcomputers with analog-to-digital (A/D) converters
were developed to measure sympathetic nerve activity. The first utilized a
relatively inexpensive computer and A/D converter and an analog technique
to count nerve traffic "spikes" above a reference voltage. The second
system, which required a more expensive microcomputer and A/D converter,
used digital methods exclusively to count spikes and integrate nerve
activity. These systems produced accurate and reliable indexes of nerve
traffic. The digital system could also be used to store the nerve signal to
magnetic disk, thereby allowing the later use of more complex analytical
procedures and the possibility of comparing the results of different
analyses performed upon a single data set.
