Application of Acoustic-Electric Interaction for Neuro-Muscular Activity Mapping: A Review

Biological current source imaging method based on acoustoelectric effect: A systematic review

Neuroimaging can help reveal the spatial and temporal diversity of neural activity, which is of utmost importance for understanding the brain. However, conventional non-invasive neuroimaging methods do not have the advantage of high temporal and spatial resolution, which greatly hinders clinical and basic research. The acoustoelectric (AE) effect is a fundamental physical phenomenon based on the change of dielectric conductivity that has recently received much attention in the field of biomedical imaging. Based on the AE effect, a new imaging method for the biological current source has been proposed, combining the advantages of high temporal resolution of electrical measurements and high spatial resolution of focused ultrasound. This paper first describes the mechanism of the AE effect and the principle of the current source imaging method based on the AE effect. The second part summarizes the research progress of this current source imaging method in brain neurons, guided brain therapy, and heart. Finally, we discuss the problems and future directions of this biological current source imaging method. This review explores the relevant research literature and provides an informative reference for this potential non-invasive neuroimaging method.

Mobility disorders and pain, interrelations that need new research concepts and advanced clinical commitments

This Perspective will discuss topics recently suggested by Prof. Helmut Kern, Vienna, Austria, to advance the research activities of his team, that is: Topic A, 10 years post RISE; Topic B, New research for new solutions on old research questions; Topic C, Working groups on nerve regeneration, training-parameters of seniors in different ages, muscle adaptation; and studies of connective tissue and cartilage. This Perspective summarizes some of the basic concepts and of the evidence-based tools for developing further translational research activities. Clinically relevant results will ask for continuous interests of Basic and Applied Myologists and for the support during the next five to ten years of public and private granting agencies. All together, they will end in protocols, devices and multidisciplinary managements for persons suffering with muscle denervation, neuromuscular-related or non-related pain and for the increasing population of old, older and oldest senior citizens in Europe and beyond.

From the Padua Muscle Days, the Basic and Applied Myology and the European Journal of Translational Myology to the A&CM Carraro Foundation for Translational Myology

As a young researched I had the option to work on skeletal muscle at the University of Padova, Italy. Introduced to the study of muscle denervation/reinnervation, I started a project on long term denervated muscle that still is my primary interest and took me from rodents’ models of chronic muscle denervation to human spinal cord injury-related muscle denervation and its managements. On the way, I organized a series of conferences in Euganei Hills, Padua, Italy and an international journal, the Basic and Applied Myology. From 2010 this journal changed name to European Journal of Translational Myology, whose contents are focused on Myology, though they have important implications in aging, several neurological disorders and cancer cachexia. A relatively large community of Basic Biologists, Clinicians and Biomedical Technologists (usually meeting separately in very different specialty Conferences) recognized the need of a Meeting Series focused on Translational Myology. Thus the Padua Muscle Days (PMD) started more than 25 years ago. The next events of the PMD Series will be in Autumn 2017 an one-day Seminar on Easy Aging and a three-day event: The 2017 Fall Padua Experts’ Meeting. During the 2018Spring PMD, the Giovanni Salviati Memorial will be organized to honor a beloved friend and excellent scientist, who abruptly disappeared twenty years ago at the peak of his research activities. Many friends and still-active pupils accepted invitation and will provide the backbone of the Program of the 2018Spring PaduaMuscleDay to be held, March 14-16, 2018 in Euganei Hills and Padua (Italy). All these events will be sponsored by the Interdepartmental Research Centre of Myology of the University of Padova and by the A&CM Carraro Foundation for Translational Myology.

2017Spring PaduaMuscleDays, roots and byproducts

The second 2017 issue of EJTM volume 27 contains the collection of abstracts from the 2017Spring PaduaMuscleDays conference, that was held March 23-25 in Montegrotto, Euganei Hills, Padova, Italy. In addition to a brief history of the Padova Myology Meetings held during the last 30 years, the present and the future of the PaduaMuscleDays conference are discussed with special reference to new media and the options they offer to spread to a larger audience the results of the many workshops held in the Hotel Augustus conference hall and in the Aula Guariento of the Accademia Galileiana di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, one of the hidden treasures of the medioeval Padua, Italy. Preliminary announcements of the 2017 and 2018 events, in particular of the Giovanni Salviati Memorial, will follow.