Establishment of a clinical engineering department in a Venezuelan national reference hospital.

Since 1976, Clinical Engineering (CE) has been studied at the Simón Bolívar University (USB) as part of the Bioengineering Studies program developed at that University. However, it was not until 1996 that Clinical Engineering activities were established in a Venezuelan hospital. This paper describes how the USB, using its own human resources, has achieved the establishment of a Clinical Engineering Department in a national reference hospital for the first time.

Post-tetanic decay of evoked and spontaneous transmitter release and a residual-calcium model of synaptic facilitation at crayfish neuromuscular junctions.

The post-tetanic decay in miniature excitatory junction potential (MEJP) frequency and in facilitation of excitatory junction potentials (EJPs) was measured at crayfish neuromuscular junctions. A 2-s tetanus at 20 Hz caused the MEJP frequency to increase an average of 40 times and the EJP amplitude to increase an average of 13 times. Both MEJP frequency and EJP facilitation decayed with two time constants.