Biomedical Engineering

Dept. Elective – V, EE 1465

Chapter 2: Bio-signals & Medical Instrumentation Fundamentals

Department of Electrical Engineering, NIT Silchar, Assam, India

Biomedical Signals

• Biomedical signals are primarily used for

extracting information on a biological system
under investigation.

• The process of extracting information could be as

simple as feeling the pulse of a person on the
wrist or as complex as analyzing the structure of
internal soft tissues by an ultrasound scanner.

• Sources of Biomedical Signals: Biomedical signals

originate from a variety of sources as shown in Fig
below:
Types of Biomedical Signals
Bioelectric Signals:
• They are generated by nerve and muscle cells.
• Their basic source is the cell membrane potential which under certain conditions may be excited to generate an
action potential.
• The electric field generated by the action of many cells constitutes the bio-electric signal.
• The most common examples of bioelectric signals are the ECG (electrocardiographic) and EEG
(electroencephalographic) signals.
Bioacoustic Signals:
• The measurement of acoustic signals created by many biomedical phenomena provides information about the
underlying phenomena.
• The examples of such signals are:
• flow of blood in the heart, through the heart’s valves and
• flow of air through the upper and lower airways in the lungs which generate typical acoustic signal.
Biomechanical Signals:
• These signals originate from some mechanical function of the biological system.
• They include all types of motion and displacement signals, pressure and flow signals etc.
• The movement of the chest wall in accordance with the respiratory activity is an example of this type of signal.
Biochemical Signals:
• The signals which are obtained due to chemical measurements from the living tissue or from samples analyzed in
the laboratory.
• The examples are measurement of partial pressure of carbon-dioxide (pCO2), partial pressure of oxygen (pO2)
and concentration of various ions in the blood.
Biomagnetic Signals:
• Extremely weak magnetic fields are produced by various organs such as the brain, heart and lungs.
• The measurement of these signals provides information which is not available in other types of bio-signals such
bio-electric signals.
• A typical example is that of magneto-encephalograph signal from the brain.
Bio-impedance Signals:
• The impedance of the tissue is a source of important information concerning its composition, blood distribution
and blood volume etc.
• The measurement of galvanic skin resistance is a typical example of this type of signal.
• The bio-impedance signal is also obtained by injecting sinusoidal current in the tissue and measuring the voltage
drop generated by the tissue impedance.
• The measurement of respiration rate based on bio-impedance technique is an example of this type of signals.
Bio-optical Signals:
• These signals are generated due to optical functions of the biological systems, occurring either naturally or
induced by the measurement process.
• For example, blood oxygenation may be estimated by measuring the transmitted/back scattered light from a
tissue at different wavelengths.
Generic Architecture of Medical Instrumentation System
• The primary purpose of medical instrumentation is to measure or determine the presence of some physical
quantity that may assist the medical personnel for better diagnosis and treatment.

• The majority of the medical instruments are either electrical or electronic systems, although mechanical systems
such as ventilators or spirometers are also employed.

• We will discuss mostly electronic medical instruments or instrumentation systems.

• Medical instrumentation systems comprises of almost the similar characteristic features as other industrial
instrumentation systems.
Measurand:
• The physical quantity or condition that the instrumentation system measures is called the measurand.
• The source for the measurand is the human body which generates a variety of signals.
• The measurand may be on the surface of the body (electrocardiogram potential) or it may be blood pressure in
the chambers of the heart.
Transducer/Sensor:
• A transducer is a device that converts one form of energy to another.
• Because of the advantages of electric and electronic methods of measurement, it is the usual practice to convert
all non-electrical phenomenon associated with the measurand into electrical quantities with the help of a
transducer.
• A sensor in medical instrumentation essentially converts a physical measurand to an electrical signal.
• The sensor should be minimally invasive and interfaced with the living system with minimum extraction of
energy.
Signal Conditioner:
• Converts the output of the transducer into usable/suitable electrical quantity for operation of the display or
recording system.
• Signal conditioners may vary in complexity from a simple resistive network or impedance matching device to
multi-stage amplifiers and other complex electronic circuitry.
• Signal conditioning usually include functions such as amplification, filtering (analog or digital) analog-to-digital
and digital-to-analog conversion or signal transmission circuitry.
• They help in increasing the sensitivity of instruments by amplification of the original signal or its transduced form.
Display System:
• Provides a visible representation of the quantity as a displacement on a scale, or on the chart of a recorder, or on
the screen of a cathode ray tube or in numerical form.

• Most of the displays (IN MEDICAL CIENCE) are in the visual form, other forms of displays such as audible signals
from alarm or foetal Doppler ultrasonic signals are also used.

• In addition, the processed signal after signal conditioning may be passed on to:
• Alarm System—with upper and lower adjustable thresholds to indicate when the measurand goes
beyond preset limits.

• Data Storage—to maintain the data for future reference. It may be a hard copy on a paper or on
magnetic or semiconductor memories.

• Data Transmission—using standard interface connections so that information obtained may be

carried to other parts of an integrated system or to transmit it from one location to another.

• Medical instrumentation systems, requires some form of calibration at regular intervals during their operation.

• The calibration signal is usually applied to the sensor input or as early in the signal conditioning chain as possible.
Biomedical Measurements
• In medical measurements, some form of stimulus or energy is given to the patient and the effect it has on the
patient is measured.

• The stimulus may be visual in the form of flash of light or audio tone or direct electrical stimulation of some part
of the nervous system.

• A typical example is that of recording of the evoked response with EEG machine when visual/audible stimulus is
given to the subject under test.

• Measurements on the human body can be made at several levels on the functional systems and sub-systems.
• Examples of measurement made on the human body are recording of electrocardiogram and measurement
of temperature.
• The next level of measurements can be made on the major functional systems of the body such as the
cardiovascular system, the pulmonary system and so on.
• Many of the major systems communicate with each other as well as with external environment.
• The functional systems can be further sub-divided into sub-systems and organs and still smaller units up to the
cellular and molecular level.

• Measurements in the medical field are made at all these levels with specially designed instruments with
appropriate degree of sophistication.
Types of Medical Measurements
• in vivo measurement is made on or within the living organism itself, such as measurement of pressure in
the chambers of the heart.

• in vitro measurement is performed outside the body. For example; the measurement of blood glucose level in a
sample of blood drawn from the patient represent in vitro measurement.
Use of Microprocessor/Microcontrollers in Medical Instruments:
• To perform routine clinical measurements, particularly in those situations where data computing and processing
is considered as a part of measurement and diagnostic procedure.

• The incorporation of microprocessors into instruments enables to have a certain amount of intelligence or
decision-making capability.

• The decision-making capability increases the degree of automation of the instrument and reduces the
complexity of the man-machine interface.

• The computational capability makes possible features such as automatic calibration, operator guidance, trend
displays, alarm priority and automated record keeping.
Microprocessor/Microcontrollers : Generic Architecture

• In todays world more complicated architecture of microprocessor/embedded processor are in use.

Interfacing Analog Signals to Microprocessor/Microcomputer (Digital processors)
• Information acquired from the human body and eventually analysed are all in the analog form i.e. the signals
consist of many waveforms that continuously vary as a function of time.

• Examples include electrocardiograph, pressure signals and pulse waveform.

Assignment:

PC based Medical Instruments:

Limitations/Constraints in designing Medical Instrumentation System:
• Important limitations for the design of a medical measuring instrument are:

• Measurement Range: Measurement ranges are quite low compared with non-medical parameters. Most
signals are in the microvolt range.

• Frequency Range: Most of the bio-medical signals are in the audio frequency range or below, many signals
contain dc and very low frequency components.

• Some additional constraints for the design are:

• Inaccessibility of the Signal Source:

• Variability of Physiological Parameters:
• Interference among Physiological Systems:
• Transducer Interface Problems:
• Safe Levels of Applied Energy:
• Patient Safety Considerations:
• Reliability Aspects:
• Government Regulations:
• High Possibility of Artifacts:
mn`:
• Medical instrumentation industry is highly regulated industry.
• Why regulated?
• measurements are made on human beings and by the human beings, the equipment should be safe to
operate
• must give intended performance so that the patients could be properly diagnosed and treated.
• To minimize problems concerning legal, moral and ethical issues, various countries have introduced a large
number of codes, standards and regulations for different types of equipment and facilities.
• Engineers must understand their significance and be aware of the issues that are brought about by technological
and economic realities.
Associated Terminologies:
Regulations: A regulation is an organization’s way of specifying particular standard that must be adhered to. These
are rules normally promulgated by the government.

Standards: A standard is a multi-party agreement for establishment of an arbitrary criterion for reference. Or it is a
prescribed set of rules, conditions or requirements concerned with the
• definition of terms, classification of components,
• delineation of procedures, specifications of materials,
• performance, design or operations, measurement of quality and
• quality in describing materials, products, systems, services or practice.
Codes: A system of principles or regulations or a systematized body of law or an accumulation of a system of
regulations and standards. In India, it is the National Electric Code issued by the Bureau of Indian Standards.

Specifications: Documents used to control the procurement of equipment by laying down the performance and
other associated criteria. These documents usually cover design criteria, system performance, materials and
technical data.