Tetanic contraction in vocal fold muscle.

Active properties of canine vocalis muscle tissue were investigated through a series of experiments conducted in vitro. Samples of the vocalis muscle were dissected from dog larynges excised a few minutes before death and kept in Krebs solution at a temperature of 37 +/- 1 degree C and a pH of 7.4 +/- 0.05. Isometric and isotonic tetanic responses of the vocalis muscle were obtained electronically with a Dual Servo System (ergometer). Isometric tension was recorded at various levels of elongation and stimulation rate. Isotonic shortening was recorded at various levels of force, and shortening velocity was obtained by numerical analysis of recorded data. It was found that fused tetanus occurred at stimulation rates of about 90 Hz, where the isometric tetanic force saturates. Repeated stimulation of the muscle in vitro not only caused nonrecoverable fatigue in the tissue, but also decreased its passive tension. The combined active and passive isometric tension increased with elongation of the muscle. Results of isometric active responses were normalized with respect to average passive response. This normalization allowed for better comparison between tetanic contraction and twitch contraction. It was found that maximum tetanic contraction was 6.4 times greater than maximum twitch contraction obtained in a previous study. A tetanic contraction period was defined and investigated for eight samples of vocalis muscle tissue from different dogs. The tetanic contraction period showed a linear increasing trend with strain.