Technical details including mechanism of the innovation.

Since last over six years, Electro-cardio-graph machine is used to quantify and evaluate Tridosha and other “Maulik principles” by me in my clinic for studying, evaluating, measuring and establishing Tridosha  etc. intensity from my outdoor patients. For Maulik Siddhant study a part of ECG machine is selected, with some changes. The selection of the sectors / site for placement of sucking electrode for obtaining tracings from Right Vata, Left Vata, Right Pitta, Left Pitta, Right Kaphha and Left Kaphha and  sites for other leads are established accordingly. 

Basic Principles

This is a known fact that when the heart contracts, electric currents are produced and distributed throughout the body to the  skin, just like the spreading  waves of a pool of water into which a stone has been dropped. Two electrodes can be applied to any parts of the body to lead the heart current to a recording galvanometer. The obtained trace record on heat sensitive paper is called an Electro-tridosha-gram.

Basic Electrophysiology

The changes in the electrical potential with each heart beat can be understood by considering the electrical behavior of a single cell. The surface of the resting cell will be electrically positive compared with the interior of the cell which is electrically negative. A cell in this condition is said to be in the polarized state and the exterior and interior of the cell can be compared to the two poles of a battery. When the cell is stimulated, the difference in the electrical state between the negative interior and positive exterior of the cell is temporarily abolished and the cell is said to be ‘depolarized’. When the effect of excitation has passed off and the cell has returned to its former resting state, the positive charge outside and negative charge inside are restored, the cell is ‘repolarised’.

When an excitatory [depolarization] process flows towards a unipolar electrode, the galvanometer will record a positive or upward deflection and when it flows away from the electrode, a negative or downward deflection.

Normal resting muscles:

No difference in electrical potential exists, therefore if the two ends are connected to a galvanometer no current will flow- no deflection

Depolarization

If one end of the muscles stripe is stimulated, the surface of the muscles is no longer positive whereas the surface of the cell at the resting portion is still positive, an electric current will therefore flow from the resting to the stimulated part causing the needle of the galvanometer to deflect.

When the excitation has activated the whole strip, all cells are in the excited or depolarized state. Consequently there is no difference in electrical potential between any points on the surface of the stripe. No current will therefore flow through the external circuit and the galvanometer needle will return to the zero position.

Repolarization

When the effect of stimulation has subsided, the strip returns to its resting state, recovery starting at the point which was first stimulated. At this movement the cells of the recovered portion are again in the polarized state and their surface is electrically positive in relation to the surface of the still excited cells. The differences in the electrical potential are therefore of the opposite direction from those during the spread of excitation. The current will therefore flow from the already recovered to the still excited portion of the muscle strip.

When subsequently the whole strip has recovered all the cells are again in the resting [polarized] state. The electrical potential at all points being the same, no current will flow and the needle will return to zero.

Thus the excitation and subsequent recovery of the muscles stripe have given rise to two electrical currents or deflections of opposite directions. The current of the Repolarization [during recovery] are weaker and extend over a longer period of the time than those of the depolarization [during excitation]. Applying this to the electrical changes produced by the heart beats the same fundamental principle holds but with some modifications. This is because the hearty consists of a multitude of intercommunicating muscle fibers and had four chambers which are activated in sequence more complicated than the simple spread of excitation through a muscles strip.

Physiological Basis

The important characteristics of human heart include excitability, rhythmicity, conductivity, contractibility and distensibility. Excitability and contractility are the inherent properties of each cardiac cell. The excitation wave passes from cell to cell once stimulated at any point and the whole mass of cardiac cells behave as a syncitium. This is due to ionic flux of Potassium across the cell membrane maintained by Sodium+ Potassium+ ATPase whereby intracellular potassium is 30 times more than the exterior. Following excitation, the depolarization wave starts. If a microelectrode is placed inside a muscle fiber, it records an extreme rapid phase of depolarization lasting 1-2- msec and then becomes positive in comparison to exterior by 15-30 mV over a period of 6-15 msec. Thereafter there is a plateau of 100 msec followed by a Repolarization period. Upstroke of this action potential coincides with R wave of ECG, the plateau period with R-T segment and the Repolarization with T wave. Changes in concentration of Potassium and calcium and to less extent sodium have profound effect on excitability and contractility of heart. Magnesium and Strontium have some effect only when calcium concentration is low.

Depolarization wave in myocardial cells and cells of Purkinjee system is brought about  by fast inward movement of sodium whereas in pacemaker cells of SA node and in proximal region of A-V node  it is brought about  by slow inward movement of calcium. Only under abnormal conditions, the fast inward current by sodium channel is often inhibited and depolarization is brought about by calcium channel.

Electrophysiology

Electrophysiology is the study of the electrical properties of biological cells and tissues. It involves measurement of the voltages changes or electric current flow on a wide variety of scales from single ion channel proteins to whole tissues like the heart. In neuroscience, it includes measurements of the electrical activity of neurons, and particularly action potential activity.

Action potential

An action potential is a wave of electrical discharges that travels along the membrane of a cell. Action potential carries fast internal massages between the tissues, and is an essential feature of animal life. They can be created by many types of body cells, but are used most extensively by the nervous system to send massages between nerve cells and from nerve cells to other body tissues such as muscles and glands.

Action potential is an essential carrier of the neural code. Their properties may constrain the sizes of evolving anatomies and enable centralized control and coordination of organs and tissues.

Signal transduction

In biology, signal transduction is any process by which a cell converts one kind of signal or stimulus into another. Process referred to as signal transduction often involve a sequence of biochemical reactions inside the cells, which are carried out by enzymes and linked through second messengers. Such processes take place in as little time as a millisecond or as long as a few seconds. Slower processes are rarely referred to as signal transduction.

In many transduction processes, an increasing number of enzymes and other molecules become engaged in the events that proceed from the initial stimulus. In such cases the chain of steps is referred to as a “signaling cascade” or a “second messenger pathway” and often results in a small stimulus eliciting a large response.

Membrane potential

Membrane potential [or transmembrane potential or transmembrane potential difference or transmembrane potential gradient] , is the electrical potential difference [voltage] across a cell’s plasma membrane. In membrane biophysics it is sometime used interchangeably with cell potential, but is applicable to any lipid bilayer or membrane. Hence every organelle and every membranous compartment [such as a synthetic vesicle] has a transmembrane potential [although the size of this potential may be zero].

Electrolyte

An electrolyte is a substance that dissociate into free ions when dissolved [or molten], to produce an electrically conductive medium. Because they generally consist of ions in solution, electrolytes are also known as ionic solutions. They are sometimes referred to in abbreviated jargon or lytes.

Electrolytes generally exist as acids, bases or salts. Furthermore, some gases may act as electrolytes under conditions of high temperature or low pressure. An electrolyte may be described as concentrated if it has a high concentration of ions or dilute a low concentration of ions. If a high proportion of the dissolved solute dissociates to form free ions, the solution is strong; if most of the dissolved solute dose not dissociate, the solution is weak. The properties of electrolytes may be exploited via electrolysis to extract constituent elements ad compounds contained within the solution.