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A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON THE EFFECTS OF BARBITURATE AND ETHYL ALCOHOL ON RETINAL FUNCTIONS WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE C‐WAVE OF THE ELECTRORETINOGRAM AND THE STANDING POTENTIAL OF THE SHEEP EYE
Author(s) -
KNAVE BENGT,
PERSSON HANS E.,
NILSSON SVEN ERIK G.
Publication year - 1974
Publication title -
acta ophthalmologica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.534
H-Index - 87
eISSN - 1755-3768
pISSN - 1755-375X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1755-3768.1974.tb00375.x
Subject(s) - barbiturate , erg , alcohol , retinal , ethanol , electroretinography , retina , chemistry , endocrinology , anesthesia , medicine , biology , biochemistry , neuroscience
The effects of barbiturate (thiopental) and ethyl alcohol on the a‐, b‐ and c ‐waves of the conventional electroretinogram (ERG) and the standing potential (SP) of the intact sheep eye were studied and compared. I.v. administration of ethyl alcohol resulted, after some minutes latency, in a large increase of the c ‐wave amplitude. A marked positive d.c. shift of long duration and with similar time course to that of the c ‐wave increase was observed in the SP after a small negative change. Barbiturate induced slow long‐lasting shifts of the SP with an initial negative and a subsequent positive polarity. Large doses were shown to result in negative‐positive cyclic variations of the c ‐wave. For ethyl alcohol, as has been shown for barbiturate, the effect on the c ‐wave, thus appears to be linked in time to the effect on the SP. No similarities whatsoever could be demonstrated between the changes of the SP and those of the a ‐ and b ‐waves. These results lend support to the notion that ethyl alcohol, in addition to its neuropharmacological effects on the neuroretina, may also influence the functions of the pigment epithelial cells in a way similar to barbiturates.