Shunting effect on resistance measurements in visceral smooth muscle tissue

An electrical network is presented as a model of the electrical connections between cells in a cross section of visceral smooth muscle. Methods of operational calculus are used to analyze the network and to determine the effect of parallel paths on measured resistances between the nodes. The analysis of the model suggests that actual resistances between two adjacent cells if they are isolated from the other cells in the cross section could be three times the values measured when the cells are interconnected with the parallel fibers. It is felt that the analysis presented makes possible a more accurate interpretation of electrical measurements of intercellular resistance by providing an estimate of the shunting effect of the current paths through parallel cells.