Autonomic nervous system defined

Lewy body pathology is also the defining feature of several other, rarer diseases, such as Lewy body dysphagia and pure autonomic failure. In these diseases, Lewy bodies and neurites are largely limited to the enteric and peripheral nervous systems. In Parkinson s disease, Lewy body pathology is also present in the enteric and autonomic nervous systems. 

VIP has a large number of ill-defined physiological actions, some of which are shared with other similar polypeptide hormones (secretin and GIF). It acts as a neurotransmitter in the central and autonomic nervous systems and causes vasodilation and relaxation of the smooth muscles of the circulatory and genitourinary systems and the gut. Other actions of VIP include an increase of water and electrolyte secretion from the pancreas and gut release of hormones from the pancreas, gut, and hypothalamus stimulation of lipolysis, glycolysis, and bile flow and inhibition of gastrin and gastric acid secretion. Most of the actions of VIP tend to be of short duration because of its rapid degradation. 

Heart rate is controlled by the autonomic nervous system. Stroke volume, or the volume of blood ejected during systole, depends on preload, afterload, and contractility. As defined by the Frank-Starling mechanism, the ability of the heart to alter the force of contraction... 

Diabetic neuropathy was defined at the San Antonio Consensus Conference as a descriptive term meaning a demonstrable nerve disorder, either clinically evident or subclinical, that occurs in the setting of diabetes mellitus without other causes for peripheral neuropathy. The neuropathic disorder includes manifestations in the somatic or autonomic parts of the peripheral nervous system ... 

Diabetic neuropathy is a chronic condition caused by hyperglycaemia, characterized by progressive morphological destruction of the peripheral nervous system, accompanied by loss of peripheral nerve function. Clinically, loss of function is defined by distal loss of sensibility, muscular strength and loss of deep tendon reflexes as well as by autonomic dysfunction of viscera and blood vessels. 

The APUD concept of a diffuse neuroendocrine system has been defined as follows by A.G.E.Pearse [in Centrally Acting Peptides, J. Hughes (ed.), MacMillan, 1978] The cells of the APUD series, producing peptides active as hormones or as neurotransmitters, are all derived from neuroendocrine-programed cells originating from the ectoblast. They constitute a third (endocrine or neuroendocrine) division of the nervous system whose cells act as third line effectors to support, modulate or amplify the action of neurons in the somatic and autonomic divisions, and possibly as tropins to both neuronal and non-neuronal cells . 

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