| demand pacemaker | A form of artificial pacemaker usually implanted into cardiac tissue because its output of electrical stimuli can be inhibited by endogenous cardiac electrical activity. (05 Mar 2000) |
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| diaphragmatic pacemaker | A device that paces the diaphragm, used in patients with chronic ventilatory insufficiency resulting from malfunction of the respiratory control centre on certain types of phrenic nerve malfunction. (05 Mar 2000) |
| ectopic pacemaker | Any pacemaker other than the sinus node. (05 Mar 2000) |
| electric cardiac pacemaker | An electric device that can substitute for the normal cardiac pacemaker, controlling the heart's rhythm by artificial electric discharges. Synonym: electronic pacemaker. (05 Mar 2000) |
| electronic pacemaker | An electric device that can substitute for the normal cardiac pacemaker, controlling the heart's rhythm by artificial electric discharges. Synonym: electronic pacemaker. (05 Mar 2000) |
| electronic pacemaker load | The impedance to the output, the standard load being 500 ohms resistance ± 1%. (05 Mar 2000) |
| transthoracic pacemaker | Artificial pacemaker delivering stimuli through the chest wall usually applied as a temporizing measure in patients with atrioventricular block. (05 Mar 2000) |
| external pacemaker | An artificial cardiac pacemaker whose electrodes for delivering rhythmical electrical stimuli to the heart are placed on the chest wall. (05 Mar 2000) |
| fixed-rate pacemaker | An artificial pacemaker that emits electrical stimuli at a constant frequency. (05 Mar 2000) |
| action potential | <physiology> The sequential, electrochemical polarization and depolarisation that travels across the membrane of a nerve cell (neuron) in response to stimulation (touch, pain, cold, etc.) (09 Oct 1997) |
| bioelectric potential | Electrical potential's occurring in living organisms. (05 Mar 2000) |
| biological hazard potential | <radiobiology> Measure of the hazard posed by a given quantity of radioactive material in which the variation in biological effects of the various elements are accounted for. See: integrated biological hazard potential. (21 Mar 1998) |
| biotic potential | <biology, ecology> The potential growth a population of living things can expect if it were living under ideal environmental circumstances. (19 Jan 1998) |
| body surface potential mapping | Recording of regional electrophysiological information by analysis of surface potentials to give a complete picture of the effects of the currents from the heart on the body surface. It has been applied to the diagnosis of old inferior myocardial infarction, localization of the bypass pathway in wolff-parkinson-white syndrome, recognition of ventricular hypertrophy, estimation of the size of a myocardial infarct, and the effects of different interventions designed to reduce infarct size. The limiting factor at present is the complexity of the recording and analysis, which requires 100 or more electrodes, sophisticated instrumentation, and dedicated personnel. (12 Dec 1998) |
| brain potential | <physiology> The electrical charge of the brain as compared to a point on the body; the potential may be steady (DC potential) or may fluctuate at specific frequencies when recorded against time, giving rise to the electroencephalogram. (05 Mar 2000) |