Abstract
The human body surface is vibrating constantly. This invisible oscillation is called “Mikrovibration” or “Mikrobewegung” by Rohracher (1946). Although many points still remain to be elucidated, this phenomenon which changes in certain conditions is clinically very interesting, and especially in oto-neurology was found by Kawata (1958).
Recently, we have analyzed the microvibration of the cheek surface in cases of maxillary cancer, and found the possibility to get a closer approach to early detection of cancer by its measuring.
In these experiments, a special pickup (s. Fig. 1) with the vacuum tube RCA 5734 was always used, which was connected with an amplifier (Nihon Koden Co. Tokyo). The recording was done through a pickup laid on the cheek surface of the subject, who was ordered to keep quiet mentally as well as physically. The recording was done first on the left cheek and then on the right cheek immediately after resting and afterwards every 5 minutes during 20 minutes.
We attempted to classify the various microvibration curves from their characteristics in the following basic 4 types: normal type (N), ascending type (A), descending type (D) and labile type (L),(s. Fig. 4, 5, 6, 7). We express the microvibration curve changes in formulae of NADL-Classification (provisionally so called). As the coefficient of these formulae, comparing degrees of energy, we use the first integer of the square number of the measured counts. Main curve patterns as N, A, D or L as mentioned above, in the next position, then the dominancy of the main components, for example αβ or βα with the suffix number to indicate grades, should be arranged.
In 20 normal adults the amplitudes were small. Most of them were of α dominancy, and of N or gradual D type in view of the oscillation curves.
On the other hand, we found that the amplitudes were generally very large in 30 cases of maxillary cancer, except those cases that had been previously treated by 60 Co irradiation.
β wave component was rich in the affected side (70%) and A or L types increased highly. In 14 patients suffering from sinusitis maxillaris, the amplitudes were larger than those of normal adults, but smaller than these of cases of cancer. N or gradual D type decreased and β-component increased almost as high as cases of cancer.
After all, concerning the increase of the amplitudes, it is not certain whether the influence of a pathological condition upon substance metabolism appeared as tonus of the muscle fibers. The increase of β-component is a possible objective sign for pathological change.
