Viral infections exacerbate asthma. One of the pathways by which viruses trigger bronchoconstriction and hyperresponsiveness is by causing dysfunction of inhibitory M(2) muscarinic receptors on the airway parasympathetic nerves. These receptors normally limit acetylcholine (ACh) release from the parasympathetic nerves. Loss of M(2) receptor function increases ACh release, thereby increasing vag...

PURPOSE To define the variations of the courses of the cranial nerves and the inferior petrosal sinuses as they enter and traverse the jugular foramen. METHODS Thirty-nine cadaveric specimens containing the jugular foramen were scanned with 1-mm contiguous axial and coronal CT sections. Each specimen was dissected to evaluate the position of the cranial nerves and inferior petrosal sinus as t...

BACKGROUND High-resolution ultrasonography is a new and promising technique to evaluate peripheral and spinal nerves. Its validity as a diagnostic tool in neurological diseases has been demonstrated in adults. Up to now no reference values have been published in children and adolescents although this technique would be ideal in this population as it is fast and non-invasive. METHODS/DESIGN Ou...

In this study the cranial nerves development of H. huso are explained from 1 to 54-days-old (1, 3, 6, 15, 21 and 54 days). Despite all the researches on fish brain, there are no study on nerves evolution on H. huso during their larvae life. For this research 40 samples of larvae H. huso were obtained (from each age, about six samples were selected). The specimens were maintained in fiberglass t...

Rabbits were anesthetized with halothane, paralyzed with d-tubocurarine and mechanically ventilated at eucapnic level. The activity of both phrenic nerves was recorded before and after brainstem transection in animals with vagi intact and then cut. The effect of transection depended upon its level: midpontine transections elicited an apneustic pattern of firing in phrenic nerves prior to vagoto...

Serotonin neurons and fibers on the subpial surface of the ventral medulla oblongata in the rat are described by immunohistochemistry and autoradiography. The neurons are concentrated in the area encompassed by the origins of the abducens, hypoglossal, glossopharyngeal, and vagus nerves. The highest number of serotonin surface neurons appears along the median medullary fissure or basilar sulcus...

The appendix is a tubular structure that arises from the cecum and consists primarily of smooth muscle and an abundance of lymphoid tissue. The average adult appendix can reach a length of 10 cm with a luminal width of 6 to 7 mm. Innerva­ tion from sympathetic and vagus nerves accounts for referred pain to the umbilicus when inflammatory changes are present. The location of the appendix (retroc...

The role of cardiac nerves in the production of cardiac arrest during surgical anaesthesia on coronary ligated hypoxic heart has been studied. When atropinished coronary ligated dogs were exposed to hypoxia the terminal event was a cardiac asystole in 88% of the dogs. In propranolol treated dogs, or in dogs where sympathetic ganglia upto T6 were bilaterally removed earlier, coronary ligation an...

Stimulation of the carotid body chemoreceptors with cyanide in anaesthetized rabbits usually causes a deep breath or gasp, but only if the vagus nerves are intact. This gasp has several similarities with spontaneous deep breaths in eupnoea. In paralysed rabbits, artificially ventilated, chemoreceptor stimulation induces an augmented discharge in the phrenic nerve equivalent to a gasp. In sponta...

Double-barrelled pH-sensitive micro-electrodes were used to record changes of extracellular pH during repetitive stimulation of isolated rat vagus nerves. It was found that a small initial alkaline shift was followed by a prolonged acidification. The acidification was correlated in time with the poststimulus undershoot of the extracellular K+ activity and with the recovery phase of the nerve co...