Association of latissimus dorsi muscle expansion with electrostimulation before cardiomyoplasty.

Background: The principle of cardiomyoplasty is chronic electrostimulation of the latissimus dorsi muscle (LDM) flap wrapped around the heart to obtain a phasic activity that can be integrated to ventricular kinetics. In clinical cardiomyoplasty procedures, a complete wrap of both ventricles by the LDM cannot always be obtained in cases of extremely dilated hearts. This is due to the limited LDM length available for wrapping.

Fetal hearing.

The fetus can hear during the last trimester of pregnancy. Consistent responses to acoustic stimuli have been observed from 28 weeks onwards. Animal experiments as well as investigations in the human lead to the conclusion that sounds from outside the mother are attenuated, but rarely by more than 30 decibels; external conversations are audible.

[Intra-amniotic transmission of the human voice].

New acoustic measurements in amniotic environment permit to specify the conditions of transmission of human voices: voices emerge, incompletely covered by a low background noise, but however higher pitched near the placenta. The recognition of phonemes in utero is rather weak, approximately 30 per cent and appreciably identical for all voices and different mode of emission. Therefore this type of recognition is likely to play a minor role: the voices are evenly toneless by lack of high-pitch, and there is no obvious superiority of the intelligibility of direct maternal voice.