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In this paper we present the concept of biomedical instrumentation laboratory exercises and group projects as an example of organisation of practical students’ work. The purpose of the laboratory exercises and projects is to give students the practical knowledge in analysis and design of (in our case) biomedical instrumentation and systems, as well as some biomedical signal processing. The course offers implementation of the concepts and tools that are taught in Biomedical Instrumentation through design examples with real devices, as well as an individual hands-on experience about the concepts that are taught in the course. Our experience showed that it is essential that students are taught of basic principles of the functions of biomedical devices and equipment, but the implementation of group projects gives more motivation and brings to exceptional results.

An image based system implementing a well-known diagnostic method is disclosed for the automatic detection of melanomas as support to clinicians. The software procedure is able to recognize automatically the skin lesion within the digital image, measure morphological and chromatic feature, carry out a suitable classification for the detection of structural dermoscopic criteria provided by the 7-Point Check List. Experimental results about the adoption of statistical techniques applied to the border detection, feature extraction and classification as well as the resulting diagnostic score are described with reference to a large image set. Copyright © 2011 by the International Measurement Confederation (IMEKO) All rights reserved.

The Methodist Hospital in Houston, Texas, is a 1,527-bed, tertiary care teaching hospital that is both a national and international referral center for medical care in many medical and surgical specialties. The Biomedical Instrumentation Department provides services throughout the hospital in all aspects of clinical equipment management and clinical engineering. With 29 employees and an annual budget of $2.1 million, the department enhances efficiency in the delivery of quality medical care.

Technology management services at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital are provided by two distinct cost centers: The Department of Biomedical Instrumentation and Jefferson Biomedical Shared Services. The in-house division of the Department of Biomedical Instrumentation (BMI) provides clinical engineering services to the hospital, a 717-bed, tertiary care facility. BMI supports traditional patient care instrumentation, as well as dialysis machines, anesthesia machines, lasers, and the neonatal extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) systems. In addition, the department supports over 3,000 personal computers and associated peripherals, and provides research, design, database support, device evaluation, incident investigation, and product problem investigation services. Jefferson Biomedical Shared Services, an integral component of the Department of Biomedical Instrumentation, offers a shared services program to local area hospitals. It has a current client list of 11 major healthcare institutions with annual revenues approaching $3,000,000 per year.

For centuries, medical practitioners had no electronic medical instruments and had to rely on their senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch to obtain physiologic measurements. Although it is possible to estimate blood pressure by palpating the pulse at the radial or brachial artery, such estimates are not accurate. Determining arterial oxygen saturation of hemoglobin is more complex: how “blue” a patient appears depends on skin coloration, lighting, and the examiner’s sense of color. Finally, using radiographic images to validate pulmonary edema when clinicians suspect that there is an elevated left atrial or pulmonary artery wedge pressure also challenges human senses. However, today’s medical instruments use transducers and signal processors to convert patient information into a form that clinicians can easily perceive and understand. This article defines terms used with biomedical instrumentation and discusses the components of ideal physiologic patient monitoring systems

El Laboratorio de Marcha es un conjunto de herramientas que permiten tomar medidas y realizar un análisis cuantitativo de los patrones de movimiento. Este sistema facilita el diagnóstico, tratamiento, seguimiento e implementación de métodos de rehabilitación en patologías asociadas con el movimiento. En este trabajo se presenta el diseño y desarrollo de un Laboratorio de Marcha que captura y registra diferentes variables dinámicas del movimiento humano. La arquitectura modular del Laboratorio de Marcha permite integrar de forma sincronizada información dinámica y cinemática. Gait Lab is a set of tools to take measurements and to develop quantitative analysis of movement patterns. This system facilitates the diagnosis, treatment, monitoring and implementation of rehabilitation methods in diseases associated with movement. In this work, we present the design and development of a Gait Laboratory that capture different variables and register human movement dynamics. The modular architecture of the proposed Gait Laboratory allows synchronized integration of kinetics and kinematics information.

Electronic knee is new opportunity for people having one or two amputated legs. Differently from traditional prosthesis, electronic knee is the first one to be driven by a microprocessor with an hydraulic control for the static and dynamic steps. It is become a positive key issue for the comfort and movement freedom for transfemoral amputed people. Despite the use of microprocessor, many difficulties arise during connection on human being and from calibration. This paper presents a technique of predicting calibration operations and stabilometric measurements in order to allow a better connection between electronic knee and the amputated patient. The technique is based on a novel genetic doped algorithm capable of producing the postural positions and correct calibration.

Human motion measurement is an important tool in medical applications. This work describes a selectable gain amplifier for an inductive based sensor used to measure human limbs angle. Preliminary tests show that sensor response errors are less than 2%.

For several years the ID17 Biomedical beamline at the ESRF has developed synchrotron radiation therapy preclinical programmes to treat aggressive brain tumours. Two techniques have been developed at the ESRF: a) The Microbeam Radiation Therapy (MRT) using spatially fractionated "white beam" (energies 50-300 keV) irradiation (beam widths 25-100 μm, spacing between beams 200-400 μm ) with extremely high dose rates (up to about 20 kGy/s) and depositing very high doses (300-1000 Gy) in the targeted tissue. b) The Stereotactic Synchrotron Radiation Therapy (SSRT) using spatially homogeneous monochromatic beam with the energy closely above that of the K-edge of a contrast- or chemotherapeutical agent (iodine, gadolinium, platinum) loaded into the tumour volume for obtaining a dose-enhancement. In 2005 an International review panel of oncology experts has recommended to move to clinical trials on humans in SSRT and on large animals in MRT. The works required for this program were launched in autumn 2007 with constructing a new, dedicated experimental hutch for MRT and a major upgrade of the existing sample-positioning station to a patient-positioning station for SSRT. In parallel, safety systems are developed and progressively implemented and a patient treatment-planning system developed. © 2010 American Institute of Physics.

Breathing plays a key role in human health, especially in terms of fatigue and energy. Oxygen maximum consumption is important for lung. Lung functional performance is characterized by: its ventilator capacity, to bring air (thus O 2 ) into alveoli, and its capacity to transfer O 2 and CO 2 into and from the pulmonary capillary bed. Hence, the O 2 and CO 2 diffusion coefficients as well as the O 2 consumption rate and the CO 2 production rate represent the lung performance indices. Both gases have a relevant importance in human body energy expenditure; one of the best instrumentation used for this purpose is ergospirometer. It allows to know the oxygen maximum consumption or the aerobic maximum power VO 2 , that is the maximum amount of energy (moles of ATP) produced by different substances (carbohydrates, lipids and proteins) per unit of time. This research proposes a signal processing approach for improving the quality of data recovered from the ergospirometric sessions. The ergospirometric is used to evaluate the efficiency of walking for two main reasons: rehabilitation and cough impact on a patient before a surgery. Cough can be an index of muscular and lung problems on human body. Before a surgery, it could be necessary to discriminate some pathologies in presence of cough. The results offered by the research are characterized by a good accuracy and they help clinicians in knowing precised values of oxygen maximum consumption, hence, human body expenditure. A Cosmed K4b2, as ergospirometer, is used in this research. It is located at Research Institute

Measurement of arterial distensibility is very important in cardiovascular diagnosis for early detection of coronary heart disease and possible prediction of future cardiac events. Conventionally, B-mode ultrasound imaging systems have been used along with expensive vessel wall tracking systems for estimation of arterial distension and calculation of various estimates of compliance. We present a simple instrument for noninvasive in vivo evaluation of arterial compliance using a single element ultrasound transducer. The measurement methodology is initially validated using a proof of concept pilot experiment using a commercial ultrasound pulser-receiver. A prototype system is then developed around a PXI chassis using LABVIEW software. The virtual instrument employs a dynamic threshold algorithm to identify the artery walls and then utilizes a correlation based tracking technique to estimate arterial distension. The end-diastolic echo signals are averaged to reduce error in the automated diameter measurement process. The instrument allows automated measurement of the various measures of arterial compliance with minimal operator intervention. The performance of the virtual instrument was first analyzed using simulated data sets to establish the maximum measurement accuracy achievable under different input signal to noise ratio (SNR) levels. The system could measure distension with accuracy better than 10 ?m for positive SNR. The measurement error in diameter was less than 1%. The system was then thoroughly evaluated by the experiments conducted on phantom models of the carotid artery and the accuracy and resolution were found to meet the requirements of the application. Measurements performed on human volunteers indicate that the instrument can measure arterial distension with a precision better than 5%. The end-diastolic arterial diameter can be measured with a precision better than 2% and an accuracy of 1%. The measurement system could lead to the development of small, portable, and inexpensive equipment for estimation of arterial compliance suitable in mass screening of "at risk" patients. The automated compliance measurement algorithm implemented in the instrument requires minimal operator input. The instrument could pave the way for dedicated systems for arterial compliance evaluation targeted at the general medical practitioner who has little or no expertise in vascular ultrasonography. � 2010 American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

This paper describes the development of a variety of classical biomedical experimental exercises by using interdisciplinary approach. A number of them have been developed integrating the knowledge of sensors, electronics, microprocessors and MATLAB software. The exercises depicted here are intended to introduce students to fundamental concepts of biomedical instrumentation, from the sensing requirements to subsequent data analyze. This not only enhances the fundamental knowledge, but also trains students in the application of complex concepts in real-world of practice and laboratory research. The emphasis is put on the measurement of physiological vital parameters. Similar concept can be applied to some other signals and systems, as well. Using proposed approach sophisticated and expensive equipment can be replaced successfully by a functional low cost hardware and/or versatile virtual instruments.

The Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) is targeting over twenty Advanced programs to elevate to international standards. The U.S. government, through the Vietnam Education Foundation (VEF), also supports technology capacity building and in 2008 initiated the U.S. Faculty Scholars Program for faculty members to teach in English at Vietnamese universities. The focus of one such program is biomedical engineering (BME) at the Hanoi University of Technology. The teaching efforts were conducted during the spring 2009 semester using both onsite classroom instruction as well as interactive internet video conferencing. Because the expertise of the HUT BME faculty lies predominately in the area of biomedical instrumentation, the need for course support is in non-electronics areas, for example, engineering biomechanics. The topics of the biomechanics course were centered on the design of an orthopedic implant, including specifications, a design report, and team presentations. A customized textbook included content targeted toward the design project, student assignments, and key PowerPoint slides. The American professor and students established a strong rapport including exposure to fresh learning approaches, engineering practices, and cultural and language experiences. There was a wide variability among the assigned grades, with several being highly competitive. Student evaluations indicated the course was well received and appreciated.

A model for a 16-week Biomedical Instrumentation course is outlined. The course is modeled in such a way that students learn about medical devices and instrumentation through lecture and laboratory sessions while also learning basic design principles. Course material covers a broad range of topics from fundamentals of sensors and instrumentation, guided laboratory design experiments, design projects, and eventual protection of intellectual property, regulatory considerations, and entry into the commercial market. Students eventually complete two design projects in the form of a ‘Challenge’ design project as well as an ‘Honors’ design project. Sample problems students solve during the Challenge project and examples of past Honors projects from the course are highlighted.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES 1 describe and characterize the purpose of the clinical laboratory 2 describe Coulter's discovery 3 define flow cytometry and describe why it is useful 4 describe and define a fluorochrome and identify why it is useful 5 describe potentiometry 6 define an ion selective electrode and describe its applications 7 define spectrophotometry and describe the application of this technique 8 define osmolality and describe the application of this technique 9 define an osmometer and identify its basic principle 10 describe electrophoresis 11 describe the principles of operation of a centrifuge 12 identify and describe other types of laboratory equipment 13 describe point-of-care testing Introduction The clinical laboratory is vital to a hospital's ability to treat patients. Bodily fluids from patients are analyzed for their chemical makeup and evidence of disease. Many therapeutic and treatment decisions are made based on the results of this important analysis. Almost all testing is automated and most devices perform many tasks. BMET support is vital to the clinical laboratory, as it is a very equipment-intensive department. The high level of complex equipment does require some hospitals to obtain service contracts for the support of clinical laboratory equipment. Some of the fluids from patients that are commonly analyzed include blood, urine, and cerebral spinal fluid. A tremendous number of tests are performed. This chapter focuses on the principles that form the foundation for the complex equipment. Most devices use multiple reagents, bar codes, robotics, and computers to perform the sample preparation and multiple tests.

This book is designed to introduce the reader to the fundamental information necessary for work in the clinical setting, supporting the technology used in patient care. Beginning biomedical equipment technologists can use this book to obtain a working vocabulary and elementary knowledge of the industry. Content is presented through the inclusion of a wide variety of medical instrumentation, with an emphasis on generic devices and classifications; individual manufacturers are explained only when the market is dominated by a particular unit. Designed for the reader with a fundamental understanding of anatomy, physiology, and medical terminology appropriate for their role in the health care field and assumes the reader's understanding of electronic concepts, including voltage, current, resistance, impedance, analog and digital signals, and sensors. The material covered will assist the reader in the development of his or her role as a knowledgeable and effective member of the patient care team.

Biomedical engineering requires a broad base of engineering knowledge and skills, which may include electrical, mechanical, and chemical engineering. Due to the variety of subject areas, it is often difficult to cover all desired materials within reasonable credit hours for an undergraduate biomedical engineering curriculum. A course in biomeasurement has been developed to provide the students with electronic and programming skills for biomedical instrumentation in an efficient way. Through hands-on learning experiences on building an embedded measurement device, the course combines subject matters from the areas of circuits, microprocessors, programming, and basic signal processing.

Esta dissertação trata do projeto e avaliação de um canal de medição de bioimpedâncias multifrequencial cujo objetivo é a medida em módulo e fase de impedâncias até 1 k com desempenho reportado nas freqüências 100 kHz, 300 kHz e 1 MHz. Um modelo teórico foi desenvolvido para cada etapa do canal de medição incluindo as não idealidades dos componentes utilizados na implementação prática. A análise da sensibilidade à variação de parâmetros e da propagação de incertezas nas etapas do sistema foi realizada juntamente com a avaliação experimental da exatidão e precisão do protótipo desenvolvido. O circuito proposto apresenta incerteza experimental 0,008% nas medidas de amplitude e 0,05% nas medidas de fase. This dissertation deals with the project and evaluation of a multifrequency bioimpedance measurement channel whose objective is to obtain the measure in module and phase of load impedances up to 1 k with performance reported in 100 kHz, 300 kHz and 1 MHz. A theoretical model was developed for each stage of the measurement channel having included non-idealities of the components used in the practical implementation. The sensitivity analysis with respect to parameter variation and uncertainty analysis in the stages of the system was carried through together with the experimental evaluation of the accuracy and precision of the developed prototype. The considered circuit presents experimental uncertainty of 0.008% in the measures of amplitude and 0.05% in the measures of phase.

Artificial ventilation can implicate dangerous complications for patients. An increasing number of concepts for lung protective ventilation systems are being developed as a result of this knowledge. The high frequency oscillation ventilation (HFOV) is one possible implementation of such a lung protective ventilation. The physiological background of higher oxygenation is an important element of current research.

This work presents a description of a goniometer with inductive sensors which can be used for medical applications. The goniometer uses the coupling between two coils. The new method is demonstrated that knowing the transmitter signal and the distance between the coils in the same goniometer’s arm, the angle between the moving and stationary arms can be easily determined. Preliminary tests indicated that the goniometer has a maximum error of 6∘ from 20∘ to 120∘.

This report presents the discussion on research collaboration between Universiti Kuala Lumpur (UniKL), deNuo Sdn. Bhd. and Flinders University of Adelaide, Australia. The main objective of the discussion was to collaborate on Biomedical Engineering Instrumentation research activities for clinical application in Malaysian hospitals. It was also aimed at potential paradigm shift to contribute to new approach of Biomedical Instrumentation particularly for educational purpose. As a result, a Biomedical Engineering Instrumentation Research Working Committee (BEI-RWC) has been established between UniKL and deNuo Sdn. Bhd. as a medium to initiate biomedical products invention and innovation that are able to be commercialized and contribute to the healthcare industry.

Myocardial infarction (MI) can be defined from a number of different perspectives related to clinical, electrocardiographic (ECG), biochemical and pathologic characteristics. The term MI also has social and psychological implications, both as an indicator of a major health problem and as a measure of disease prevalence in population statistics and outcomes of clinical trials. In the distant past, a general consensus existed for the clinical entity designated as MI. In studies of disease prevalence by the World Health Organization (WHO), MI was defined by a combination of two of three characteristics: typical symptoms (i.e., chest discomfort), enzyme rise and a typical ECG pattern involving the development of Q waves. Biomedical sensors dedicated to acquire signals from cardiac instrumentation, even if sophisticated, cannot precisely reveal and help doctors to understand, at a glance, pathologies leading towards MI. This paper traces out an integrated algorithm based on a combination of level set evolution and variation approach according to Mumford-Shah model.

In order to improve the chances of recovery of young patients suffering from hypoacusia, it is necessary to conduct hearing diagnostic tests during the first 3 to 6 moths after birth. However, for instance, in rural areas of Mexico where there is little or null access to specialized equipment, it is common to find that patients are not diagnosed until the patientspsila diminished hearing capacity has impaired their speech development as well as their and social and school integration. This paper presents the design and construction of the EEG-ITM03 EEG auditory evoked potential data acquisition system intended for diagnostic of hypoacusia. The EEG data acquisition system was tested on 5 healthy young adults and the results were compared to those obtained using a commercial equipment (CADWELL 7200). The results show that the early brain stem evoked potential latencies, related to the hearing process can be detected, even when the system is operated in non-ideal locations for conducting hearing tests. Thus the results suggest that the equipment can be used in clinics without special facilities (i.e. sound proof rooms) as part of routine diagnostic activities.

Spirometry takes care to find and to predict respiratory system pathologies through instrumentation that mainly carries out measurements on the volume and the air flow expired from lungs. A complete spirometric instrumentation composed of three parts has been developed. The first part, ldquohardwarerdquo, gains a sampled signal from a sensor of the flow-time curve and sends it to the computer. The second part, ldquosoftwarerdquo, processes received data calculating the volume-time curve, the flow-volume curve and other main spirometric parameters, displaying the result of prediction. The last part, ldquoa genetic algorithmrdquo, trains itself on the base of a series of computing with real data, to produce spirometric parameters of a most likely pathologic curve and, to predict pathology type with less possible tests.

Electrical Bioimpedance (EBI) is now a mature technology in medicine, with applications in clinical investigations, physiological research, and medical diagnosis (Schwan, 1999). The first monitoring application of bioimpedance techniques, impedance cardiography, date back to 1940. Since then, bioimpedance measurements have been used in several medical applications, from lung function monitoring and body composition, to skin cancer detection. A complete historical review is available in Malmivuo and Plonsey (1995). A medical imaging modality based on bioimpedance, Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT) has also been developed (Bayford, 2006). EBI has been used to study the effect in the brain of spreading depression, seizure activity, asphyxia and cardiac arrest since 1950s and 1960s (Ochs & Van Harreveld, 1956), but the most important activities in electrical cerebral bioimpedance research has been during the last 20 years (Holder, 1987; Holder & Gardner-Medwin, 1988).

EEG signals reveal interesting information about human being's cerebral activity. Nowadays information contents can help physicians especially in rehabilitation operations, that is, it is possible to design specific biomedical experimentation in order to help patients to retrieve acceptable and good conditions of their physical apparatus or specific areas of them. In this paper, preliminary criteria of designing and implementing an EEG classification are proposed. A modeling of classification rules is also described.

Health technology management consists of several decision processes including the acquisition of new technology. The purchasing of a new device requires the selection of one among several products taking into account different criteria. When the technology is characterized by large amount of parameters the choice becomes problematical and a support tool is needed. In 2003 Sloane et al [1] published a study in which they demonstrated the potentialities of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to support the selection of a biomedical instrumentation. The work presented here describes the application of AHP to support the quality assessment for the selection of pacemakers and implantable defibrillators and shows that the method is indeed very appropriate for that task.

Este trabajo presenta el desarrollo de un sistema formado por dos partes. La primera parte consiste en un módulo hardware diseñado para digitalizar el electrocardiograma (ECG) de cualquier electrocardiógrafo con salida analógica, y transmitir los datos a un computador personal (PC). La segunda parte del sistema consiste en un software programado en el computador, que tiene por finalidad manipular y almacenar los datos del paciente y el registro del ECG obtenido, en un formato de historia médica computarizada aplicada a cardiología. Entre las tareas que realiza el sistema se pueden nombrar: adquisición y muestreo de la señal ECG proveniente del electrocardiógrafo analógico, transmisión en forma serial al computador, visualización de la señal en tiempo real, almacenamiento digital de la historia médica de cada paciente, así como de cada una de las consultas y registros de ECG realizados, y generación de reporte para la impresión en papel de las 12 derivaciones electrocardiográficas. Como resultado de este trabajo se construyó un prototipo, el cual se encuentra actualmente en validación clínica en el Hospital Universitario de Los Andes. Este sistema ayuda a modernizar los antiguos electrocardiógrafos analógicos, transformándolos en electrocardiógrafos digitales de bajo costo, con todas las ventajas de los equipos de última generación. Además, permite el almacenamiento ordenado de las historias médicas de los pacientes, con fácil acceso a cada una de las consultas y los registros de ECG realizados con anterioridad. This work presents the development of a system formed by two parts. The first part consists on a module hardware designed to digitize the electrocardiogram (ECG) of any electrocardiograph with analog exit and to transmit the data to a personal computer (PC). The second part of the system consists on a software programmed in the computer that has the purpose of manipulate and store the patient’s data and also perform the registration of the obtained ECG, this data is taken in a format of on-line medical history applied to cardiology. Among the tasks that carries the system can be named: Acquisition and sampling of the sign ECG coming from the analog electrocardiograph, transmission in serial form to the computer, visualization of the sign in real time, digital storage of each patient’s medical history, as well as of each one of the consultations and registrations of carried ECG, and report generation for the impression in paper of the 12 derivations of ECG. As result of this work, a prototype was built, which is at the moment in clinical validation in the University Hospital of The Andes. This system helps to modernize the old analogical electrocardiographs, transforming them in digital electrocardiographs of low cost, with all the advantages of the teams of last generation. It also allows the orderly storage of the medical histories of the patients with easy access to each one of the consultations and the registrations of ECG carried out previously.

Epilepsy is one of the most common neurological disorders, affecting around 1 in 200 of the population. However, identifying epilepsy can be difficult because seizures tend to be relatively infrequent events and an electroencephalogram (EEG) does not always show abnormalities. The aim of this project is to develop a new methods that could improve the diagnosis of epilepsy, leading to earlier treatment and to a better quality of life for epileptic patients. The above methods must be composed with a flexible hardware development in order to discriminate noise and had signals from correct EEG, MEG (Magnetoencephalogram) and Eye Image recognition. Even if there are EEG signal classifiers, it is suitable to perform a correct signal processing according to particular clinical reference, that is, it is difficult to have a classifier for all circumstances but it is possible to adapt EEG processing on current patient. This paper deals with a new approach of developing an architecture with a an embedded coding included in a framework agreement between University and IRCCS "E. Medea".

Es difícil generar con bombas convencionales las condiciones de flujo del sistema cardiovascular, con las cuales se emulen condiciones hemodinámicas para evaluar diferentes dispositivos interpuestos a la corriente sanguínea. Para resolver este inconveniente, se desarrolló un sistema automatizado de bombeo de flujo pulsátil, conformado por un controlador difuso que captura datos de los instrumentos de monitoreo de variables hidrodinámicas a través de una interfaz de adquisición, y aplica señales de control a una bomba de flujo pulsátil. Este sistema permite hacer pruebas hidromecánicas que brindan elementos para interpretar la influencia de las variables que intervienen en el flujo pulsante y simular condiciones hemodinámicas en un ambiente de circulación extracorpórea. Mediante técnicas de diseño asistido por computador, se construyó una bomba de diafragma accionada neumáticamente. El controlador se desarrolló mediante la técnica de Fuzzi Control®, el cual regula el pulso y el flujo de acuerdo con parámetros y datos capturados con la interfaz de adquisición. Las pruebas del prototipo se realizaron en un laboratorio de fluidos variando frecuencia, resistencia hidráulica, viscosidad y presión de pulso, imitando las condiciones hemodinámicas de un adulto y usando como fluido de trabajo una solución acuosa con 5 cPo a 370C, para simular la viscosidad sanguínea a temperatura corporal. La reproducción de una bomba que sirve para analizar el efecto de las variables en el flujo pulsante, puede usarse en el estudio de diferentes dispositivos intravasculares y ayudar a refinar aspectos técnicos y funcionales en el estudio preliminar de máquinas de circulación extracorpórea. With conventional pumps, it is difficult to generate the cardiovascular system conditions that may emulate hemodynamic conditions for evaluating different devices interposed to the blood flow. In order to resolve this inconvenient, an automated pulsatile flow system formed by a diffuse controller that captures data from the monitoring instruments of hydrodynamic variables through an acquisition interface and applies control signals to a pulsatile flow pump, was developed. This system allows making hydromechanical tests that give elements for interpreting the influence of the variables that take part in the pulsatile flow and emulate hemodynamic conditions in an extracorporeal setting. Through computed assisted design techniques, a pneumatically operated diaphragmatic pump was constructed. The controller was developed by the Fuzzi Control® technique, which regulates pulse and flow according to the data captured by the acquisition interface. The prototype tests were realized in a fluids laboratory by varying frequency, hydraulic resistance, viscosity and pulse pressure, emulating hemodynamic adult conditions, and using as work fluid an aqueous solution with 5 cPo at 37°C for mimicking blood viscosity at corporal temperature. The reproduction of a pump that serves for analyzing the effect of variables in the pulsatile flow may be used in the study of different intravascular devices and help to refine technical and functional aspects in the preliminary study of extracorporeal circulation machines.

Neurologically related injuries cause a similar number of deaths ascancer, and brain damage is the second commonest cause of death in theworld and probably the leading cause of permanent disability. Thedevastating effects of most cases of brain damage could be avoided if itwere detected and medical treatment initiated in time. The passiveelectrical properties of biological tissue have been investigated for almost acentury and electrical bioimpedance studies in neurology have beenperformed for more than 50 years. Even considering the extensive effortsdedicated to investigating potential applications of electrical bioimpedancefor brain monitoring, especially in the last 20 years, and the specificallyacute need for such non-invasive and efficient diagnosis support tools,Electrical Bioimpedance technology has not made the expectedbreakthrough into clinical application yet. In order to reach this stage inthe age of evidence-based medicine, the first essential step is todemonstrate the biophysical basis of the method under study. The presentresearch work confirms that the cell swelling accompanying thehypoxic/ischemic injury mechanism modifies the electrical properties ofbrain tissue, and shows that by measuring the complex electricalbioimpedance it is possible to detect the changes resulting from braindamage. For the development of a successful monitoring method, after thevital biophysical validation it is critical to have available the properelectrical bioimpedance technology and to implement an efficient protocolof use. Electronic instrumentation is needed for broadband spectroscopymeasurements of complex electrical bioimpedance; the selection of theelectrode setup is crucial to obtain clinically relevant measurements, andthe proper biosignal analysis and processing is the core of the diagnosissupport system. This work has focused on all these aspects since they arefundamental for providing the solid medico-technological backgroundnecessary to enable the clinical usage of Electrical Bioimpedance forcerebral monitoring.

Medical electrical equipment must be tested in order to verify if they are constructed and designed according to safety prescriptions. The NBR (Norma Brasileira) IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) 60601 series is the normative standard set used by medical electrical test laboratories that follows the NBR ISO (International Standardization Organization) IEC 17025:2005 for this purpose in Brazil. The automation, measurement and control of the process is a key chalenge to improve the quality and productivity of test laboratories. This article presents an information system developed as a tool to aid test activities in a laboratory designed to test medical electrical equipment and improve the results of measurement of productivity. Some resourses to be included in this software are proposed in order to help the managers planning quality and productivity control.

We will report on the current status and development of deep ultraviolet light emitting diodes. Deep UV LEDs have many applications in germicidal sterilization and disinfection, biomedical instrumentation, bio-agent detection, analytical instrumentation, and industrial curing. Article not available.

The EEG is typically recorded using wet electrodes that make ohmic contact with the scalp surface using an electrolytic gel. Unfortunately, wet electrodes are intrusive to the user, problematic for EEG studies requiring high spatial resolution, and are unsuitable for long-duration EEG recordings. This paper summarizes preliminary results on measuring the EEG at room temperature, through hair, without scalp contact using a high-impedance active electrode. Preliminary tests focus on detection of the alpha rhythm with a differential, non-contact measurement at O1 and O2, 3.5 mm from the scalp.

Biomedical Instrumentation &Technology 133 When Jonathan Hill came on board as director of clinical engineering at Bayhealth Medical Center, he brought an idea he had developed at a previous hospital: competency testing for his employees. The process involves developing and administering an annual, one-on-one test to formally measure employees’ abilities in a number of key areas. Hill ultimately implemented an employee testing process that has brought the department kudos from accreditors, increased staff competency and training opportunities, and fostered better communication between Hill and his employees.

Election to the fellows college of the American Medical Informatics Association (The American College of Medical Informatics [ACMI]) recognizes significant and continuing contribution to the field of medical informatics. The College awards its highest accolade once a year, when appropriate, in recognition of lifetime achievement and singular contribution to the field. This award, the Morris F. Collen Award, recognizes those individuals, who, like Dr. Collen, have not only been noteworthy pioneers in the field, but whose professional and personal contribution and conduct over a lifetime are worthy of approbation and emulation. The College has recognized Dr. Reed McArthur Gardner as the 2005 recipient of the Collen Award. Reed's career has evolved with the field, from his earliest days as a hardware engineer building data acquisition devices for clinical decision support systems to his work as an evaluator of hospital information systems. Reed demonstrates persistence, integrity, and a passion for his work. He is a pioneer in biomedical instrumentation and standards, an unrelenting investigator, and a dedicated and demanding educator and mentor and is viewed by his colleagues as an unselfish collaborator and wonderful person to work with. He is fittingly recognized with this highest honor in the field of medical informatics. Figure 1 Reed McArthur Gardner, PhD. Reed Gardner was born in October 1937 in St. George, UT, to Wayne C. and Bessie McArthur Gardner. He was the fourth of five children. Reed's father, a sheep rancher, taught him the joy of work and accomplishment. Reed recounts, “My father taught me how to work. For example, he gave me ‘doggie,’ or orphan, lambs to raise, which I fed with a bottle until they were large enough to join the sheep herd. Then, when the lambs were sold in the fall, Father put the money into a college fund for me.” Tragically, at …

The presented data acquisition system allows recording of electrohysterographic signals from maternal abdomen and the mechanical contractions via strain gauge transducer. As a research material we collected 108 traces during 24-hour period before labour from the group of patients between 37 and 40 week of gestation. That enabled the detection of contractions in the both signals and comparison of their descriptive parameters. Obtained results shows that these methods demonstrate high agreement only in relation to the number of contractions recognized as being consistent. But, the agreement of detailed contractions parameters is unacceptable to consider these methods as fully alternative.