Cyclic variations in the spontaneous contractions of the human fallopian tube.

Abstract

In two recent papers it has been shown that periodic variations occur in the spontaneous contractions of the Fallopian tube during the reproductive cycle in the pig (Seckinger, 1923) 1 and in Macacus rhesus (Corner and Seckinger, 1923). 2 These investigations demonstrated that there is a characteristic type of contraction at the time of ovulation in both the pig and the monkey. With a knowledge of this work, we have attempted to investigate the tubal contractions in the human during the different phases of the menstrual cycle and gestation.

Our method was similar to that used by Seckinger and Corner. Rings of Fallopian tube, immersed in warm, oxygenated Locke solution, were suspended from a lever which recorded on a kymograph. Our observations are based upon records of more than forty Fallopian tubes obtained from the Woman's clinic of the Johns Hopkins Hospital, through the courtesy of Dr. Cullen and Dr. Williams. Specimens which showed marked pathological changes were rejected.

We found in our series two types of tubal contractions. In one type the contractions were slow (about 4 per minute) and of equal amplitude (Figs. 2, 3), while in the other they were more rapid (about 8 per minute) with a tendency to periodic alternation in amplitude (Fig. 1). Transitions were found between these two characteristic types.

An attempt was made to correlate these striking physiological variations with the coincident histological changes observed in the uterus, tubes and ovaries of the same specimens. It was found as a rule that the slow contractions of equal amplitude occurred throughout pregnancy and the premenstrual, menstrual and early interval phases of the cycle. Figure 3 illustrates the contractions of a tube from pregnancy.