Chloride-secreting isolated opercular membranes from the seawater-adapted teleost Sarotherodon mossambicus contain the several cell types also seen in the branchial epithelium. The vibrating probe technique has been used to localize conductance and chloride current specifically to the so-called chloride cells, thereby establishing these cells definitively as the extrarenal salt-secretory cells.

Two systems are described that implement the vibrating probe method for recording the voltage field in electrolyte solutions. The method has a spatial resolution of 5–40 μm and very low drift. The first system is a simple device that allows inexpensive but reliable use of the method to record the field in one dimension. It is based on a metal electrode vibrating along a line, with power supplied by a single piezoelectric bimorph. The second is a more complex system, with computer support, that measures the field in two dimensions, acquires the data to the computer disk, and plots the field measurement on a video image of the experimental preparation. A π-shaped linkage of three bimorphs is used to move the metal electrode in two dimensions. Motor micrometers with optical encoders are used to move the electrode and monitor its position.

After LGB, a majority of the patients failed to achieve a 50% EWL, and 16.7% required reoperation. Laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding may not be the optimal bariatric procedure for patients older than 50 years, patients with a BMI higher than 50 kg/m(2), or African Americans.

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