Biomedical Engineering and Information Systems: Technologies, Tools and Applications

This book is basically the result of 20 years of teaching the material to Electronics communication, Information Technology, Computer Science Engineering, Bioinformatics, Biotechnology Engineering and biomedical engineering students. Some of the "students" have also been faculty and post graduate. I am very grateful to them for their patience and tolerance as it progressed from crude notes to its present form.

We describe in chapter 1, Microfluidics is the manipulation and control of fluids in small scale, and  has heralded a new age in science as evidenced by the rapid increase in the amount and quality of academic and industrial research output in this area in the recent times. Microfluidics has shown tremendous promise in both fundamental and applied research in the field of vascular bioengineering. In this review, we outline the basic principles of microfluidic flow and fabrication techniques, and describe the recent advances in the applications of microfluidic devices in diagnostic and prognostic vascular bioengineering. The field is still in its infancy and has a great potential for research and development as it matures to deliver commercially viable products.  This review, focusing on the current status of microfluidic applications to diagnose and treat blood-related disorders, should be a valuable and opportune addition to the literature of interest to both academia and industry.

We describe in chapter 2, Electromagnetic fields (EMF) are essential to various applications directly involving humans. Fears about the biological effect of exposure to electromagnetic fields drive enormous research into this area. This research generates conflicting results, and consequently, uncertainty regarding possible health effects. This chapter studies a nonlinear Lorenz model describing interactions among charged particles and combined alternating (AC - alternating current) and static (DC - direct current) electromagnetic fields, for various combinations of frequencies, field strengths and relative angle (?) between the AC and DC magnetic fields. We investigate the effect on charged particles of three possible combinations of alternating and static electromagnetic fields: (i) AC electric field and DC magnetic field (ii) AC magnetic field and DC magnetic field (iii) AC electric field and AC and DC magnetic field.  Then the behavior of the particle in these fields with different initial conditions and strong directional effects is observed when the angle between AC and DC magnetic fields is varied. The results show that the cyclotron resonance frequency is affected by charged particles’ initial position and initial velocity. Further, we observe strong effects of electric and magnetic fields on a charged particle in a biological cell with initial position and initial velocity.

We describe in chapter 3, Biomedical engineering is an advanced and relatively new field in the healthcare sector. Owing to the very nature of the various professional challenges faced by healthcare professionals, the moral and ethical values seem to have taken the backburner. The factors contributing to it may include a sound knowledge of the healthcare professional on the legally-permissible ethical values, and the desperate situations requiring precise split-moment decision-making. No technological advancement without a human face is worth it, and hence, during the course of the degree, a biomedical engineering student needs to be exposed to various ethical issues through theory, live cases and demonstrations. Being intrinsically multi- and inter-disciplinary, biomedical engineering lacks precise ethical rules that delineate and delimit professional responsibility, thus blurring the ethical understanding of biomedical engineering. The solution seems to lie in giving due place to human virtues. In the coming days, bioethical issues are expected to be increasingly complicated and dominating the decision-making process owing to the advancements in sciences, and the ever-complicated cases handled by healthcare professionals. A global healthcare and ethics-related online open-access portal may serve as a common platform for all the stakeholders in the interest and ethical growth of biomedical engineering in particular and medical sciences in general.

We describe in chapter 4, a medical watermarking method through contour detection and recovery for the authenticity of bio-medical images, which uses the region growing algorithm and human visual system (HVS). The proposed scheme makes the use of neighbourhood region for converting non-specific discontinuous region into specific continuous contour data. This contour as a fragile watermark is embedded in the perceptually insignificant, spatially selected detail coefficients using sub band adaptive threshold scheme along with the EPR as a robust one. Here, a new type of non-oblivious detection method is also proposed. The improvement in performance is supported through experimental results. The reported result shows improvement in visual and statistical invisibility of the hidden data. Moreover, this algorithmic architecture utilizes the existing allocated bandwidth in the data transmission channel in a more efficient manner.

We describe in chapter 5, the use of inertial sensors to measure human movement has recently gained momentum with the advent of low cost micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) technology. These sensors comprise accelerometer and gyroscopes which measure accelerations and angular velocities respectively. This chapter investigates the spectral evaluation of individual sensor errors and looks at the effectiveness of minimizing these errors using static digital filters. The primary focus is on the derivation of foot displacement data from inertial sensor measurements. The importance of foot, in particular toe displacement measurements is evident in the context of tripping and falling which are serious health concerns for the elderly. The Minimum Toe Clearance (MTC) as an important gait variable for falls-risk prediction and assessment, and therefore the measurement variable of interest. A brief sketch of the current devices employing accelerometers and gyroscopes is presented, highlighting the problems and difficulties reported in literature to achieve good precision. These have been mainly due to the presence of sensor errors and the error accumulative process employed in obtaining displacement measurements. The investigation first proceeds to identify the location of these sensor errors in the frequency domain using the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) on raw inertial sensor data. The frequency content of velocity and displacement measurements obtained from integrating the inertial data using a well known strap-down method is then explored. These investigations revealed that large sensor errors occurred mainly in the low frequency spectrum while white noise exists in all frequency spectra. The efficacy of employing a band-pass filter to remove a large portion of these errors and their effect on the derived displacements is elaborated on. The cross-correlation of the FFT power spectra from a highly accurate optical measurement system and processed sensor data is used as a metric to evaluate the performance of the band-pass filter at several stages of the processing stage. The motivation is that a more fundamental method would require less computational demand and could lead to more efficient implementations in low-power and systems with limited resources, so that portable sensor based motion measurement system would provide a good degree of measurement accuracy.

We describe in chapter 6, Image reconstruction by electrical impedance tomography is, generally, an ill-posed nonlinear inverse problem. Regularization methods are widely used to ensure a stable solution. Herein, we present a novel electrical impedance tomography algorithm for reconstruction of layered biological tissues with piecewise continuous plane-stratified profiles. The algorithm is based on the reconstruction scheme for piecewise constant conductivity profiles, which utilizes Legendre expansion in conjunction with improved Prony method. This reconstruction procedure, which calculates both the locations and the conductivities, repetitively provides inhomogeneous depth discretization, i.e., the depths grid is not equispaced. Incorporation of  this specific inhomogeneous grid in the widely used mean least square reconstruction procedure results in a stable and accurate reconstruction, whereas, the commonly selected equispaced depth grid leads to unstable reconstruction. This observation establishes the main result of our investigation, highlighting the impact of physical phenomenon (image theory) on electrical impedance tomography; leading to a physically motivated stabilization of the inverse problem, i.e., an inhomogeneous depth discretization renders an inherent regularization of the mean least square algorithm.

We describe in chapter 7, an intelligent Decision support system (IDSS) using the pathological attributes to predict the fetal delivery to be done normal or by surgical procedure. The pathological tests like Blood Sugar (BR), Blood pressure (BP), Resistivity Index (RI) and systolic / Diastolic (S/P) ratio will be recorded at the time of delivery. All attributes lie within a specific range for normal patient. The database consists of the attributes for cases 2 i.e. normal and surgical delivery. Soft computing technique namely Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) are used for simulator. The attributes from dataset are used for training & testing of ANN models. Three models of ANN are trained using Back-Propagation Algorithm (BPA), Radial Basis Function Network (RBFN), Learning Vector Quantization Network (LVQN) and one hybrid approach is Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS). Hence in our present research the ANFIS is the model whom efficiency and result are best .The ANFIS is the best network for mentioned problem. This system will assist doctor to take decision at the critical time of fetal delivery.

We describe in chapter 8, intelligent systems has spread its fruits to the field of biomedical engineering as well; where a series of models are being applied to automatically detect diseases based on some parameters or inputs. The continuous research in this field has resulted in a large amount of database being created for many diseases which becomes very difficult to train. Also the number of attributes is under constant rise. This increases the dimensionality of the problem and ultimately leads to poor performance. In this chapter we deal with the methods to handle these situations. We discuss the mechanism to divide data between different sub-systems. We also discuss the method of division of the attributes to reduce the training time and complexity. The resultant systems are able to train better due to low computational cost and hence give better performance. We validated this with the Breast Cancer database from the UCI Machine Learning repository and found our algorithm optimal.

We describe in chapter 9, Breast cancer is the second most common cancer in the world and is difficult to accurately identify and treat. Diagnostic computational tools can be used effectively, with high degree of accuracy, to determine and distinguish between the two known types of breast cancer namely benign and malignant. These modeling’s tools include, Hidden Markov Model (HMM), Fuzzy Logic (FL) and Artificial Neural Network (ANN) can highlight the important features that play pivotal roles in the classification an aid physicians to diagnose and prognosticate breast cancer.  Moreover, recent advancement in nanotechnology indicates that with the aid of nanoparticles, nanowires, nanorobots and nanotubes breast cancer can be totally eradicated. The chapter highlights the limitations of the current therapies used in breast cancer and discusses the concept of nanotechnology as a possible future therapy.

We describe in chapter 10, the information extracted from the EMG recordings is of great clinical importance and is used for the diagnosis and treatment of neuromuscular disorders and to study muscle fatigue and neuromuscular control mechanism. Thus there is a necessity of efficient and effective techniques, which can clearly separate individual MUAPs from the complex EMG without loss of diagnostic information. This chapter deals with the techniques of decomposition based on statistical pattern recognition, cross-correlation, Kohonen self-organizing map and wavelet transform.

We describe in chapter 11, In most healthcare systems, this is achieved through exchange of medical information, phone calls and conversations.  In an ideal world, this exchange of health information between disparate providers, healthcare systems, laboratories, pharmacies and payers would be achieved electronically and seamlessly. The potential benefits of electronic health exchange are improved patient care, increased efficiency of the healthcare system and decreased costs. The reality is that health information is electronically exchanged only to a limited extent within local communities and regions, much less nationally and internationally. One main challenge has been the inability of health information exchange organizations to develop a solid business case. 

We describe in chapter 12, the World Wide Web has made available a large variety of medical information and education resources only dreamed of two decades ago. This review discusses a number of Web-based e-Medical education concepts and resources likely to be of interest to the medical education community as well as a number of other groups. The resources described focus especially on those that are free and those that have an interactive component. The importance of interactivity and its role in the “constructivist” approach to education is emphasized. Problem-based learning in medical education is also discussed. In addition, the importance of “Web 2.0” and related developments is discussed, along with an overview of Web-based medical simulation software that can complement medical education programs.

We describe in chapter 13, despite the importance of medical records, relatively little is known about medical transcription, a process through which voice files are transformed into healthcare documentation. This lack of knowledge is evident in academic research with no previous studies of medical transcriptionists (MTs) or the medical transcription service organizations (MTSOs) in existence despite the central role of the industry in the creation of healthcare documentation. While its general aim is to document the impact of technology on the process of medical transcription, the topic resides in a broader array of issues that include the impact of technology on the workplace, and how assumptions of work drive technological design. The central issue being examined is what is the extent to which technology can replace workers and how design decisions impact practice by either facilitating or impeding it. Given the thing being produced is vital for medical treatment, resolving this question is not only of academic interest, but important to everyone who has a medical record.

The authors of chapter 14 present a novel concept of applying Soft Computing Tools, namely Artificial Neural Networks and Neuro-Fuzzy System, for person identification using speech and facial features. The work is divided in four cases, which are Person Identification using speech biometrics, facial biometrics, fusion of speech and facial biometrics and finally fusion of optimized speech and facial biometrics.

We describe in chapter 15, Cryopreservation of sperm has many applications in agriculture, biotechnology, and clinical medicine. The spermatozoon is a very specialized cell that loses the ability of biosynthesis, repair, growth and cell division during the final phase of spermatogenesis. Cryopreservation of sperm generally requires a reduction or arrest of the metabolism of cells, thereby prolonging their life. Semen samples of mammalian species are diluted with a suitable diluent [containing a complex extender (e.g., egg-yolk, milk, milk-whey), cryoprotectant (e.g., glycerol)] and processed through different freezing protocol prior to storage in liquid nitrogen (-196C). Despite the use of complex media and cryoprotectants, a substantial portion of the cells die during freezing and thawing (recovery rate do not exceeds more than 50%). As the complex media contain large numbers of undefined biomolecules (proteins, lipids, carbohydrates), it is difficult to analyze the beneficial/detrimental effects of a particular compound on sperm cryopreservation.

We describe in chapter 16, Custom-designed zinc finger proteins attached to various DNA-modifying domains can be used to achieve highly specific genome modification, which has tremendous applications in molecular therapeutics. Analysis of sequence and structure of the zinc finger proteins provides clues for understanding protein-DNA interactions and aid in custom-design of zinc finger proteins with tailor-made specificity. Computational methods for prediction of recognition helices for C2H2 zinc fingers that bind to specific target DNA sites could provide valuable insights for researchers interested in designing specific zinc finger proteins for biological and biomedical applications. In this chapter, we describe the zinc finger protein-DNA interaction patterns, challenges in engineering the recognition-specificity of zinc finger proteins, the computational methods of prediction of proteins that recognize specific target DNA sequence and their applications in molecular therapeutics.