Lecturer: Daniela Zambarbieri  

Course name: Biomedical Instrumentation
Course code: 503188
Degree course: Bioingegneria
Disciplinary field of science: ING-INF/06
L'insegnamento è caratterizzante per: Bioingegneria
University credits: ECTS 6
Course website: n.d.

Specific course objectives

The course will examine some types of instrumentation for bioimaging and therapeutic instrumentation with particular reference to heart disease. Describes the operating principles, design issues, state of the art and future prospects of further development, keeping in view the problems of interaction with the human body and patient safety.

Course programme

X-ray
Properties of X-ray interaction with matter, attenuation. Biological effects of ionizing radiation

Radiography
The X-ray tube: anode, cathode and heat dissipation. Instrumentation for X-ray. Radiographic film, intensifying screens, image intensifiers. Collimators, filters, aluminum grilles. The use of contrast media.

Computed tomography
Reconstruction of the attenuation coefficients of the individual voxels. Evolution of CT equipment. Solid and gaseous detectors. General scheme of a CT system. The gantry. Multi-slice tomography and electron beam tomography

Magnetic resonance imaging
The principle of magnetic resonance imaging. Precessional motion and the Larmor frequency. FID signal and echo; excitation RF pulse sequences. The gradients and spatial information. Structure of a tomograph for RM. The contrast agents in MRI. Patient safety. Functional imaging with magnetic resonance imaging

Pacemakers
Pathological changes in heart rate. The PM synchronous and asynchronous. The PM-adapting frequency. The electrodes and the power of the PM. Programmability. Rate responsive pacemakers. Dual sensors RR pacemakers. Three-chamber pacemakers

Defibrillators
The external defibrillators in alternating current and direct current. The cardioverter. Implanted defibrillators.

Extracorporeal circulation
The connecting lines between the patient and the machine. The problem of hemolysis. Priming volume. Roller pump. Oxygenation of the blood. Oxygenators film, whirl and membranes. The heat exchanger.

Heart valves
Mechanical valves: caged ball, tilting disk and bileaflet. Biological valves. Duration of the valves and anticoagulant treatment. Percutaneous heart valve

Hemodialysis
The renal disease. The principle of dialysis. Composition of the dialysis bath. Various types of dialyzers. Structure of a hemodialyzer and monitoring. The vascular access

Artificial Heart
Total artificial heart and ventricular assist devices. The energy problem. Power supply cable with percutaneous or inductive coupling. Pumping techniques and control strategies. Overview of the state of the art of existing devices

Course entry requirements

Principles of human physiology. General principles of the interaction between the instruments and the human body. Principles of Electrical Safety

Course structure and teaching

Lectures (hours/year in lecture theatre): 45
Practical class (hours/year in lecture theatre): 0
Practicals / Workshops (hours/year in lecture theatre): 0

Suggested reading materials

Course slides.

J.G. Webster. Medical Instrumentation 4th Edition. Wiley.

Testing and exams

Exam consists of a written test