Reproduction Abstracts

Introduction: Understanding the direction and quantity of information flowing in a complex system of myometrium is a fundamental task in signal processing. The new perception of such related functioning systems can be given by the evaluation of synchronization between signals.

Materials and methods: Spontaneous uterine activity was recorded in ten mature Polish Landrace sows directly by commercial implants TL10M3-D70-EEE (DSI, USA) surgically positioned between the abdominal muscles and three silver bipolar needle electrodes sutured on the uterine horns and corpus uteri. We used the linear measures: the cross-correlation function (f_x,y(l), f_y,z(l)) and the cross-coherence function (C_xy(f), C_yz(f)) to assess synchronization between three simultaneously, telemetrically (PowerLab (AD Instruments, Australia) Chart v.4.1), recorded time series of a diestral uterine EMG bursts in sows.

Results and discussion: The aim was to plot the directional map of signal flow between the channels. The results show a slight superiority of the cross-coherence function. We observed the synchronization between all simultaneously recorded signals. The EMG bursts migrated along the uterine horn in both cervico-tubal and (predominantly) tubo-cervical direction. Results are encouraging for the future use of analysis methods for resolving of the directionality of uterine EMG flow under the effect of various medicaments administration and may provide a way of finding pacemaker localization in the uterus.

Keywords: EMG, uterus, sow, bursts migration