Purpose Frequent desaturation due to immature incoordination of suck-swallow-breathing in preterm infants can influence multiple organs such as the heart, lungs, and brain, which can then affect growth and development. Most notably in preterm infants, feeding desaturation may even affect pulmonary function during gavage feeding. Because respiratory muscle activities may reflect the work require...

In 20 patients undergoing elective major abdominal surgery, heart rate and arterial oxygen saturation were monitored continuously during the night 2 days before operation and during the first and second nights after operation (23:00 to 07:30). Mean heart rate increased by 16 beat min-1 (P less than 0.0006) and mean oxygen saturation decreased by 3.2% (P less than 0.0002) after operation. Four p...

We studied the influence of lung volumes on apnoea-induced desaturation in ten subjects with sleep apnoea syndrome. Lung volumes were measured by helium dilution in the sitting and supine position and closing volume with the single-breath nitrogen washout test. To characterize the severity of apnoea-induced desaturations, we determined a desaturation curve for each patient. This curve was obtai...

Membrane specialization through lateral compartmentalization is pivotal to the development of organisms and their response to environmental signals. The membrane raft hypothesis is lively discussed as a concept for domain formation. In recent years plant scientists have begun to critically assess the membrane raft hypothesis, and this provided the first insights into the mechanisms underlying m...