 Biomedical Engineering: It is the application of

Engineering principles (electronics, electrical,

computer, mechanical and others) to medicine and
biology for the health care (Diagnostic, monitoring,
supporting and therapeutic).
 It is multidisplinary branch of Engineering, which
contains many areas as follows
1. Medical Instrumentation
2. Signal and Image processing
3. Biomaterials
4. Biotelemetry
5. Medical Informatics
 Development of Biomedical Instrumentation:
 Many instruments ware developed as early as the
nineteenth century- for example electrocardiograph,
first used by Einthoven a Dutch doctor and
physiologist.
 He invented the first practical electrocardiogram
(ECG or EKG) in 1903 and received the Nobel Prize in
Medicine in 1924 for the discovery of the mechanism
of the electrocardiogram.
 In 1960 many instrument manufactures entered the
field of medical instrumentation, they designed
instrumentation for medical use.
 Both US government and other organization spent money
through grants to universities and hospitals research units.
Awarness of need for engineers and technicians work with
medical profession developed.
 One of the societies that emerged in the interface area is
the association for advancement of medical
instrumentation (AAMI). It consists of both engineers and
physicians. Engineers are divided into clinical engineers
and medical engineers.
 Clinical engineer who brings to health care facilities a level
of education, experience and effectively and safely
manages the medical devices.
 Medical engineer, who involves in operation, underlying
physiological principles and practical, safe clinical
application of biomedical equipment. His capabilities
include installation, calibration, inspection, preventive
maintenance and repair of general biomedical devices.
 Components of man-instrument system: It
consists of following components.
1. Subject
2. Stimulus
3. Transducer
4. Signal condition circuit
5. Display device
6. Recording, data processing and transmission
equipment
 Subject: Subject is the human being on whom the
measurements are made. It constitutes many
biopotentials and living organisms. Some of the
biopotentials are electrocardiogram, electromyogram,
electroencephalogram and electroretinogram.
 Stimulus: In many measurements, the response to
some of external stimulus is required. The stimulus
may be visual (flash of light), auditory (tone), tactile
or direct electrical stimulation of nervous system.
 Transducer: It is defined as capable of converting one
form of energy to another. It senses the biopotential
and converts to electrical signal. For example
thermistor converts temperature to electrical signal,
strain gauge produces electrical signal by sensing the
pressure.
 Signal conditioning unit: Biomedical signal comes
from transducer transferred to signal conditioning
circuit.
 It amplifies the given signal and then processes the
signal by removing the noise and measures signal
parameters. Finally transfers measured parameters to
either display or memory for future purpose.
 Display device: Output of signal conditioning circuit
must be converted into form that can be perceived by
one of man’s senses and that can convey the
information obtained by the measurements in a
meaningful way.
 It can be visual, audible or tactile information.
 Recording, data processing and transmission:
It is often necessary to record the measured
information for possible later use or to transmit it
from one location to another.
 It is used where computer control is employed so
that automatic storage or processing is required.
 Control feedback device: For automatic control
of stimulus, transducer or any part of man-
instrument system, a control system is
incorporated.
 This system usually consists of a feedback loop
and is used to control the operation of the system .
 PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED IN MEASURING
A LIVING SYSTEM
 Inaccessibility of Variables to Measurement
 One of the greatest problems in attempting measurements from a living
system is the difficulty in gaining access to the variable being measured.
In some cases, such as in the measurement of dynamic neurochemical
activity in the brain, it is impossible to place a suitable transducer in a
position to make the measurement.
 Sometimes the problem stems from the required physical size of the
transducer as compared to the space available for the measurement. In
other situations the medical operation required to place a transducer in
a position from which the variable can be measured makes the
measurement impractical on human subjects, and sometimes even on
animals.
 Where a variable is inaccessible for measurement, an attempt is often
made to perform an indirect measurement. This process involves the
measurement of some other related variable that makes possible a
usable estimate of the inaccessible variable under certain conditions. In
using indirect measurements, however, one must be constantly aware of
the limitations of the substitute variable and must be able to determine
when the relationship is not valid.
Variability of the Data
 Few of the variables that can be measured in the human body
are truly deterministic variables. In fact, such variables
should be considered as stochastic processes. A stochastic
process is a time variable related to other variables in a
nondeterministic way.
 Physiological variables can never be viewed as strictly
deterministic values but must be represented by some kind
of statistical or probabilistic distribution.
 In other words, measurements taken under a fixed set of
conditions at one time will not necessarily be the same as
similar measurements made under the same conditions at
another. time. The variability from one subject to another is
even greater.
 Here, again, statistical methods must be employed in order
to estimate relationships among variables.
Lack of Knowledge About Interrelationships
 The foregoing variability in measured values could be
better explained if more were known and understood
about the interrelationships within the body.
 Physiological measurements with large tolerances are
often accepted by the physician because of a lack of this
knowledge and the resultant inability to control
variations.
 Better understanding of physiological relationships
would also permit more effective use of indirect
measurements as substitutes for inaccessible measures
and would aid engineers or technicians in their job of
coupling the instrumentation to the physiological
system.
Interaction Among Physiological Systems
 Because of the large number of feedback loops involved in the
major physiological systems, a severe degree of interaction exists
both within a given system and among the major systems.
 The result is that stimulation of one part of a given system
generally affects all other parts of that system in some way
(sometimes in an unpredictable fashion) and often affects other
systems as well.
 For this reason, cause-and-effect relationships become extremely
unclear and difficult to define. Even when attempts are made to
open feedback loops, collateral loops appear and some aspects of
the original feedback loop are still present.
 Also, when one organ or element is rendered inactive, another
organ or element sometimes takes over the function. This
situation is especially true in the brain and other parts of the
nervous system.
Effect of the Transducer on the Measurement
 Almost any kind of measurement is affected in some way
by the presence of the measuring transducer. The
problem is greatly compounded in the measurement of
living systems. In many situations the physical presence
of the transducer changes the reading significantly.
 For example, a large flow transducer placed in a
bloodstream partially blocks the vessel and changes the
pressure-flow characteristics of the system.
 Similarly, an attempt to measure the electrochemical
potentials generated within an individual cell requires
penetration of the cell by a transducer. This penetration
can easily kill the cell or damage it so that it can no
longer function normally.
 In designing a measurement system, the biomedical
instrumentation engineer or technician must exert
extreme care to ensure that the effect of the presence of
the measuring device is minimal.
 Because of the limited amount of energy available in the
body for many physiological variables, care must also be
taken to prevent the measuring system from loading the
source of the measured variable.
 Artifacts
 In medicine and biology, the term artifact refers to any
component of a signal that is extraneous to the variable
represented by the signal.
 Thus, random noise generated within the measuring
instrument, electrical interference (including 60-Hz pickup),
cross-talk, and all other unwanted variations in the signal are
considered artifacts.
 A major source of artifacts in the measuring of a living
system is the movement of the subject, which in turn results
in movement of the measuring device.
 Since many transducers are sensitive to movement, the
movement of the subject often produces variations in the
output signal. Sometimes these variations are
indistinguishable from the measured variable; at other times
they may be sufficient to obscure the desired information
completely.
 Application of anesthesia to reduce movement may itself
cause unwanted changes in the system.
 Energy Limitations
 Many physiological measurement techniques require
that a certain amount of energy be applied to the living
system in order to obtain a measurement.
 For example, resistance measurements require the flow
of electric current through the tissues or blood being
measured.
 Some transducers generate a small amount of heat due
to the current flow. In most cases, this energy level is so
low that its effect is insignificant.
 However, in dealing with living cells, care must
continually be taken to avoid the possibility of energy
concentrations that might damage cells or affect the
measurements.