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External anal sphincter fatigue is not improved by N ‐acetylcysteine in an animal model
Author(s) -
Healy C. F.,
Mcmorrow C.,
O'herlihy C.,
O'connell P. R.,
Jones J. F. X.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
neurogastroenterology and motility
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.489
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1365-2982
pISSN - 1350-1925
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2982.2008.01101.x
Subject(s) - acetylcysteine , muscle fatigue , mental fatigue , medicine , oxidative stress , anesthesia , urology , gastroenterology , chemistry , electromyography , biochemistry , physical medicine and rehabilitation , antioxidant , clinical psychology
Oxidative stress is associated with skeletal muscle fatigue. This study tests the hypotheses that N ‐acetylcysteine (NAC) reduces fatigue and accelerates recovery of the rat external anal sphincter (EAS). Fifteen female Wistar rats were killed humanely. The EAS was mounted as a ring preparation and electrically stimulated with 50 Hz trains of 200 ms in duration every 4 s for three and a half minutes. Three groups were analysed: a control group ( n = 5), a group pretreated with NAC (10 −4 mol L −1 ; n = 5) and a group pretreated with NAC (10 −3 mol L −1 ; n = 5). A novel fatigue index was formulated and was compared to a conventional method of expressing fatigue. There was no significant difference at concentrations of NAC (10 −4 mol L −1 ; P > 0.05). At high concentrations of NAC (10 −3 mol L −1 ) there was a significant depression in peak twitch amplitude before fatigue ( P = 0.04). N ‐Acetylcysteine in both concentrations used, did not alter fatigue or recovery of the rat EAS. There was a significant positive correlation between the two methods of expressing fatigue but the conventional method produced a higher fatigue index (22.4% on average). N ‐Acetylcysteine does not ameliorate fatigue or accelerate recovery of the EAS and may not be a useful medical therapy for faecal incontinence.