Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
- PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION
- Chapter 1 DIMENSIONAL ANALYSIS IN MATHEMATICAL PHYSIOLOGY
- Chapter 2 THE MATHEMATICS OF DIFFUSION
- Chapter 3 POPULATION BIOLOGY
- Chapter 4 BIOGEOGRAPHY: MATHEMATICAL ANALYSIS OF WILDLIFE RESERVES
- Chapter 5 PHARMACOKINETICS: DRUG DISTRIBUTION IN PHARMACOLOGY
- Chapter 6 MATHEMATICAL MODELLING IN EPIDEMIOLOGY
- Chapter 7 MODELLING THE AIDS EPIDEMIC
- Chapter 8 BIOLOGICAL FLUID MECHANICS
- Chapter 9 ANALYSIS AND APPLICATIONS OF LEFT VENTRICULAR MECHANICS
- Chapter 10 ANALYSIS AND APPLICATIONS OF HEART VALVE VIBRATION
- Chapter 11 MEDICAL DEVICES
- GLOSSARY OF TERMS
- REFERENCES
- INDEX
Chapter 11 - MEDICAL DEVICES
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
- PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION
- Chapter 1 DIMENSIONAL ANALYSIS IN MATHEMATICAL PHYSIOLOGY
- Chapter 2 THE MATHEMATICS OF DIFFUSION
- Chapter 3 POPULATION BIOLOGY
- Chapter 4 BIOGEOGRAPHY: MATHEMATICAL ANALYSIS OF WILDLIFE RESERVES
- Chapter 5 PHARMACOKINETICS: DRUG DISTRIBUTION IN PHARMACOLOGY
- Chapter 6 MATHEMATICAL MODELLING IN EPIDEMIOLOGY
- Chapter 7 MODELLING THE AIDS EPIDEMIC
- Chapter 8 BIOLOGICAL FLUID MECHANICS
- Chapter 9 ANALYSIS AND APPLICATIONS OF LEFT VENTRICULAR MECHANICS
- Chapter 10 ANALYSIS AND APPLICATIONS OF HEART VALVE VIBRATION
- Chapter 11 MEDICAL DEVICES
- GLOSSARY OF TERMS
- REFERENCES
- INDEX
Summary
“Medical device” is a recent terminology used to identify a wide variety of medical equipments. Medical devices are generally classified into three principal categories: diagnostic, therapeutic, and assistive (or rehabilitative).
Diagnostic Devices
Diagnostic devices are very common because of their usefulness when a physician first examines a patient. Perhaps the two most familiar diagnostic devices are the thermometer and the stethoscope. A thermometer measures body temperature, which is an indicator of the process of regulated burning of body fuel called metabolism. The stethoscope collects the feeble sounds made by some internal body organs and presents these sounds to the physician's ear. The timing and nature of these sounds give important clues to the physician regarding the function of these organs. A stethoscope is also used to measure blood pressure when an occluding cuff is wrapped around the upper arm and quickly inflated to a pressure high enough to occlude the artery under it. When the pressure in the cuff is lowered slowly, blood spurts through the collapsing artery, and a stethoscope is used to monitor the downstream arterial sounds, the appearance and disappearance of which indicate when to read the cuff pressure to determine the maximum (systolic) and minimum (diastolic) blood pressure.
There are some organs in the body which function in relatively inaccessible locations. These organs must be transilluminated for visualization. The lowenergy x-ray beam is used for this purpose, but because of the insensitiveness of the human eye to electromagnetic energy, a photographic surface or fluorescent screen is used to convert the absorption image to a visible one.
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- An Introduction to Mathematical Physiology and Biology , pp. 208 - 211Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1999