A Textbook of Medical Instruments

This book has therefore subdivided the realm of medical instruments into the same sections like a text on physiology and introduces the basic early day methods well, before dealing with the details of present day instruments currently in use. Some principles of diagnosis are also included in order that a new researcher could understand the requirements of the Physician rather than blindly proceed in his developments using his knowledge of circuity, software and methods of signal processing. Further, medical diagnostic practice has been conservative in preserving the acumen the Physicians have imbided from their seniors. For example, in the ECG, the very same trace occupying just 2 mm-3 mm with a chart paper is the vital (QRS) component in diagnosis, though, at present, the same information can be presented in a much better time-scale with greater detail. Because ECG diagnosis is still based on this standard record, a researcher intending to produce a new algorithm for a detection of typical pathology (automatically) would need to know the principles of pathological detection from the ECG in current use. That is why, the book has spent some pages on such aspects as well.

After covering the several instruments under the different heads of Physiology, the Present day instruments like the CT scanner, the MRI, Ultrasound and Lasers are included. These deserve typically separate volumes on their own, but even here, the essentials are covered both from the medical and technical angles.

Particular importance has been given to safety aspects as has been widely made known through several papers in the IEEE magazines, in a separate chapter. A chapter on possible further developments and another on signal processing examples have been included to the advantage of a medical reader intending to exploit the technological developments.

A final chapter on the use of computers for medical data management and the use of the Web at large concludes the book.

In a book of this kind, meant to be of use for the student who gets himself introduced to medical instruments for the first time, a large number of books, journals and manufacturers material had to be referred to. Today, the subject is growing at a very fast pace and newer methods in surgery and diagnostics are coming up every day. The book could cover only such material as are current and it is up to the reader to keep himself abreast of the developments by looking into the useful journals for example, the IEEE issues. A little work done by the authors own Biomedical and Engineering group has been included in the chapter on New developments.