Karpenko Alexey
Embryonic Tissues Center "EmCell"

Dramatic achievements of the century in the field of in vivo body structure investigation - from X-rays to ultrasonic and MRI,  are in upsetting contrast with almost no progress in the capabilities of in vivo investigation of regulatory systems. Moreover - clear awareness of how little can be observed activity of complicated hierarchy of regulatory systems in vivo and extempore is commonly absent.

Similarly to X-rays that were crucial for in vivo investigation of a body structure, in the near future there a technology will appear for in vivo monitoring of regulatory systems.

This technology will use information produced by regulatory systems. These produce nothing else but oscillations of output (regulated) functions. An oscillation is a carrier of information on efforts of regulatory system to regulate and keep the output function. Since most parameters are influenced by several regulatory systems, their average levels are kept by efforts of several regulatory systems, and complicated oscillations of the output parameters reflect regulatory efforts of each regulatory system involved.

Like the white light can be decomposed into different colors by means of a prism, a complicated oscillation of a function (e.g. heart rate, blood pressure, skin impedance, etc.) by means of a proper "prism" can be decomposed to inform on activity of a certain regulatory function. Like the white light is invariably organized in a rainbow, regulatory hierarchy in a human body consists of several permanently present levels of oscillations.

This "rainbow" of regulatory levels in the body can be observed through different windows (parameters). Given below are examples of oscillatory characteristics of RR intervals of ECG, of vessel tonus, measured for each heart beat, as time (ms) from R ECG to pulse wave (Ps) in a finger, and skin-galvanic reflex (in conventional units). All these parameters were recorded simultaneously 50 times per minute continuously during 8 hours (24000 measurements of each per session). None level is never missed.

The "proper prism" (special spectral method), reveals waves from different sources separately and is adequate to sophisticated features of natural physiological oscillations.

"Intravision" of regulatory activity of different levels and functional mechanisms' efforts, being a non invasive in vivo ex tempore monitoring, promises to become a new important branch of medical and psycho physiological diagnostics, which will add diagnostics and monitoring of regulations to existing diagnostics of structure and functions.

Karpenko A. A step toward monitoring regulatory systems and regulatory efforts of the body. Society for Minimally Invasive Therapy Tenth Annual International Meeting, London, UK. Minimally Invasive Therapy. 1998, v.7, s.l, p. 11.