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The muscle activity of normal ambulatory individuals was recorded continuously for 8-hour (working day) periods. Parameters of activity patterns were defined and numerical outcomes for these parameters were compared across a diverse population of muscles. Several pattern parameters, such as the average percentage of time active, were highly correlated with the percentage of type I fibers of a muscle.

There is increasing evidence that leukocyte-endothelial adhesion molecules are important in inflammatory airway disease because of their involvement in the primary steps of entrapment and migration of leukocytes to the site of inflammation. Recently, circulating forms of these adhesion molecules have been described, although their origin, fate, and function are still unknown. We have used an antigen capture ELISA to measure the concentrations of circulating intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (cICAM-1), E-selectin (cE-selectin), and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (cVCAM-1) in the peripheral blood of 13 atopic and 16 non-atopic normal subjects, 29 patients with stable asthma, and inpatients with acute asthma on Day 1 (n = 38), Day 3 (n = 29), and Day 28 (n = 13) of an asthmatic episode. Circulating ICAM-1 and E-selectin levels were significantly raised in acute asthma on all three study days when compared with those observed in stable asthma, atopic normal, or nonatopic normal volunteers with no significant differences among the latter three groups. Circulating VCAM-1 was not significantly increased in any of the groups studied. There were no correlations among the concentrations of these three circulating adhesion molecules. The elevated concentrations of cICAM-1 and cE-selectin in acute asthma may reflect the extensive inflammatory response occurring in the airways during acute exacerbations of the disease with airway obstruction. It is possible that the cytokine and mediator profiles in acute asthma lead to the preferential synthesis and expression of these two circulating adhesion molecules in comparison with cVCAM-1.

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We have examined the spectral components of heart rate variability (HRV) during induction of anaesthesia with thiopentone, tracheal intubation and subsequent inhalation of isoflurane-nitrous oxide. Commonly used spectral analysis methods such as fast Fourier transformation or autoregressive modelling require stationary data and are not suitable for the rapidly changing HRV data in this period. An advanced spectral analysis method, time-frequency analysis, which can treat non-stationary data, was used in this study. Multiple spectra were generated to demonstrate the time-related spectral components of HRV. Mid-frequency power (MF, 0.08-0.15 Hz), high-frequency power (HF, 0.15-0.5 Hz) and MF/HF ratio at baseline, after induction (before intubation), immediately after intubation and during maintenance periods were calculated and compared. MF and HF powers decreased after induction and were reduced further in the maintenance period but MF/HF ratio remained unchanged after induction. Immediately after intubation MF and HF powers did not differ significantly from the immediate pre-intubation values, but MF/HF ratio did.

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