Basic Medical Instrumentation System: - Static and dynamic characteristics of medical instruments,

Bio-signals and characteristics. Problems encountered with measurements from human beings.

Basic Medical Instrumentation System:-

MEDICAL INSTRUMENTATION SYSTEM: Biomedical instrumentation and engineering is the application of
knowledge and technology to solve problems related to living biological systems. It involves measurement
of biological signals like ECG EMG or any other electrical signals generated in huma n being. Simultaneously
diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease in human. As the medical field is emerging, the area of
Biomedical Engineering is an expanding field. The term “Bio” is to denote something related to life. When
basic of Physics and Chemistry get applied to living things, they are named as Biophysics and Biochemistry.
So when the discipline of engineering and medicine interacts, it is called Biomedical engineering.
Biomedical instrumentation helps physician to diagnose the problems and provide appropriate treatment
to human being.
BIOMEDICAL INSTRUMENTATION: It is the field of creating instruments that helps to measure, record and
transmit data from or to the human body.
Basic objectives of instrumentation system generally fall into one of the major categories:
1. Information Gathering: In this system, instrumentation is used to measure natural phenomena and
other variables to aid man in his quest for knowledge about himself and the universe in which he
lives.
2. Diagnosis: Measurements are made to help in the detection and, hopefully, the correction of some
malfunction of the system being measured.
3. Evaluation: Measurements are used to determine the ability of a system to meet its functional
requirements.
4. Monitoring: Instrumentation is used to monitor some process or operation in order to obtain
continuous or periodic information about the state of the system being measured.
5. Control: Instrumentation is sometimes used to automatically control the operation of a system
based on changes in one or more of the internal parameters or in the output of the system.

CLLASFICATION OF BIOMEDICAL INSTRUMENTATION: Biomedical instrumentation may be classified in two

categories.
1. Clinical
2. Research
Clinical instrumentation is basically devoted to the diagnosis, care, and the treatment of the patients
whereas research instrumentation is used primarily in the search for new knowledge pertaining to the
various systems that compose the human organism. Although some instruments can be used in both areas.
Clinical instruments are generally designed to be more rugged and easier to use. On the other hand,
research instrumentation is normally complex, more specialized and designed to provide a much higher
degree of accuracy, resolution and so on. Clinical instruments are used by the physician or nurses, whereas
research instruments are generally operated by skilled technicians whose primary training is in the
operation of such instruments. The concept of the man instrument system applies to both clinical and
research instrumentation.
Types of Measurements
1. Vivo - It is made on or within the living organism itself. For Example - A device inserted into
the blood stream to measure the pH of the blood directly.

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 Basic Medical Instrumentation System: - Static and dynamic characteristics of medical instruments,
Bio-signals and characteristics. Problems encountered with measurements from human beings.

2. Vitro - It is performed outside the body, even though it relates to the functions of the
body. For Example - pH of a sample of blood.

Major Physiological Systems of the body

1. The Bio-chemical System - Chemical Systems that produce energy for the activity of the
body, messenger agents for communication, materials for body repair and growth and substances
required to carry out the various body functions.
2. The Cardiovascular System - A complex, closed hydraulic system with a four chamber pump
i.e. the Heart, connected to flexible and sometimes elastic tubing i.e. blood vessels.
3. The Respiratory System - The pneumatic system of the body.
4. The Nervous System - Communication network for the body. If a certain section is damaged,
other section can adapt and eventually take over the function of the damaged section.

Static characteristics describe the performance of instruments for dc or very low frequency inputs. The
properties of the output for a wide range of constant inputs demonstrate the quality of the measurement,
including nonlinear and statistical effects. Some sensors and instruments, such as piezoelectric devices,
respond only to time-varying inputs and have no static characteristic.
 Accuracy :- The accuracy of a single measured quantity is the difference between the true value and
the measured value divided by the true value:

Accuracy is often quoted as a percentage. Many times, the true value is unknown overall operating
conditions, so the true value is approximated with some standard.
 Precision- The precision of a measurement expresses the number of distinguishable alternatives
from which a given result is selected. On most modern instrumentation systems the precision is
ultimately determined by the analog-to-digital converter (AID) characteristics.
 Resolution- The smallest quantity that can be measured with certainty is the resolution. Resolution
expresses the degree to which nearly equal values of a quantity can be discriminated.
 Reproducibility- The ability of an instrument to give the same output for equal inputs applied over
some period of time is called reproducibility. Drift is the primary limit on reproducibility.
 Sensitivity- Sensitivity describes changes in system output for a given change in a single input. It is
quantified by holding all inputs constant except one. This one input is varied incrementally over the
normal operating range, producing a range of outputs needed to compute the sensitivity.
Dynamic characteristics require the use of differential and/or integral equations to describe the
quality of the measurements. Although dynamic characteristics usually depend on static characteristics,
the nonlinearities and statistical variability are usually ignored for dynamic inputs, because the differential
equations become difficult to solve. Complete characteristics are approximated by the sum of static and
dynamic characteristics. This necessary oversimplification is frequently responsible for differences between
real and ideal instrument performance.

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 Basic Medical Instrumentation System: - Static and dynamic characteristics of medical instruments,
Bio-signals and characteristics. Problems encountered with measurements from human beings.

Bioelectrical signals are very low amplitude and low frequency electrical signals that can be measured
from biological beings, for example, humans. Bioelectrical signals are generated from the complex self-
regulatory system and can be measured through changes in electrical potential across a cell or an organ.

A bio signal can be defined as a physiological phenomenon, a body variable that can be measured and
monitored. Since the number of physiological mechanisms is nearly unlimited, the diversity of bio signals is
huge. This can also be justified by the fact that there are many ways to classify the bio signals:

 PERMANENT/INDUCED (INTRINSIC/EXTRINSIC TO BODY)

 Static/Dynamic
 Origin

Classification

Intrinsic/Extrinsic to body

This first method takes the existence of bio signals as a way to classify them, dividing the bio signals into:

 Permanent Bio signals

This kind of Bio signals exist without any excitation from outside body and are always present in the
Human Body because source is inside the body. One example is the electrocardiographic signal (ECG)
induced by electrical heart muscle excitation with the peaks P-Q-R-T-S.

 Induced Bio signals

This group of bio signals includes bio signals that are artificially induced. In contrast with the permanent
bio signals this one’s exist only during the excitation. It means that, when the artificial induction is over the
induced bio signal decays with a time constant determined by the body properties. One example is electric
plethsysmography; here an artificial current is induced in the tissue.

Dynamic

The second method takes in consideration the dynamic nature of the bio signal according to:

 Static Bio signal

Static bio signals carry information during their steady-state lever wich may show slow changes over the
time. For example the body temperature, which shows slightly changes during the day, that's why we can
consider it a static bio signal.

 Dynamic Bio signal

Dynamic bio signals show big changes during time, for example the heart rate. The course of the heart rate
represents a highly dynamic bio signal.

Origin

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 Basic Medical Instrumentation System: - Static and dynamic characteristics of medical instruments,
Bio-signals and characteristics. Problems encountered with measurements from human beings.

The last method is using the origin of the bio signal as a basis for their classification, here are some
examples:

 Electric bio signals

 Magnetic Bio signals
 Mechanic Bio signals
 Optic Bio signals
 Acoustic Bio signals
 Chemical Bio signals
 Thermal Bio signal

Active and Passive -

Active

These are bio signals where the energy source for measurement is the patient himself. Here we have two
types of "sub" bio signals:

 Electrical Bio signals: ECG; EEG; EMG.

 Non-electrical bio signals: Thermography and pH for example.

Passive

These ones, the energy source for measurement is not the patient, e.g. wrist oximeter.

== Electric Bio signals ==

WHAT HAS THIS GOT TO DO WITH CHARACTERISTICS OF SIGNALS???

Knowing the different signals from the brain and from other parts of the body is very important to
understand the reason of many physiological and pathological functions of these same ones. Electric bio
signals can be defined as a change in the electric current across a specialized tissue, organ or cell like the
nervous system for example. Some examples of electric bio signals are:

 Electrocardiogram (ECG)
 Electroencephalogram (EEG)
 Electromyogram (EMG)

(ECG) The electrocardiogram is a graphic which is produced by an electrocardiograph. This device records
the heart activity over the time. When the electrical waves which cause the heart muscles to contract pass-
through the body, they can be measured by the electrodes placed on the patient skin, providing a view of
the hearth muscle activity. A typical ECG tracing is a cycle of three entities:

 P wave (atrial depolarization)

 QRS (ventricular depolarization)
 T wave (ventricular repolarization)

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 Basic Medical Instrumentation System: - Static and dynamic characteristics of medical instruments,
Bio-signals and characteristics. Problems encountered with measurements from human beings.

(EEG) Electroencephalography is the measurement of the brain electrical activity, recorded from
electrodes placed on the scalp. When these signals are analyzed they are used as a diagnostic tool to
detect pathologies associated with strange electrical behavior.
Problems encountered in measuring a living system
1. Inaccessibility of variables to measurements.
2. Variability of the data.
3. Lack of knowledge about interrelationships.
4. Interaction among physiological systems.
5. Effect of the transducer on the measurement.
6. Energy limitations.
7. Safety considerations.

Problems encountered in measuring a living system:

1. Inaccessibility of variable to measurement: it is greatest difficulty in attempting from a living

system is the problem in gaining to the variable being measured. For example neuron chemical
activity of brain ,it is impossible to place transducer so we need to do the indirect measurement.in
using indirect measurement, however one must be aware of the limitations.
2. Variability of data: majority of physiological variables are nondeterministic, means varies with
respect to time.so these must be represented by some statistical or probability distribution.
3. Lack of knowledge of interrelationship: physiological measurements with large tolerance are often
accepted by the physician because of lack of this knowledge and the resultant in ability to control
variations. Better understanding of physiological relationship would also permit more effective use
of indirect measurements as substitutes for inaccessible measure.
4. Interaction among physiological systems: 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 sys tem generally affects all
other parts of the system in some way and often affects other systems as well.
5. Effect of transducer: Transducer can be considered as a device converting one form of energy to
another form. Electrical transducers can be considered as a device meant to convert a form of
energy to equivalent electrical signals. The physical quantity to be measured can be position,
displacement, flow, temperature, strain, velocity etc. and the output is in the form of electrical
parameters like current, capacitance, voltage, inductance, change in resistance etc.
6. 6. Artifacts: it is component or variable is observed while doing experiment, which is not naturally
present. Thus random noise generated within the measuring instrument, electrical interference
(50/60 Hz), cross talk and all other unwanted variations in a signal are considered artifacts.
7. Energy limitations: many physiological measurement techniques 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 tissue or blood being measured.
Some transducers generate small amount of heat due to the current flow.
8. Safety considerations: methods employed in measuring variables in a living human subject must in
no way endanger the life or normal functioning of the subject. Recent emphasis on hospital safety
requires that extra caution must be taken in the design of any measurement system to protect the
patient.

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