BITS Pilani K. K.

BIRLA GOA CAMPUS

Semester 1, 2019 – 20
Medical Instrumentation (EEE/INSTR F432) End Semester Examination (Closed book)
Date: 08/12/19 Total Marks: 40 (40 %) TIME: 180 Mins

Instructions: 1) Provide neat diagrams and necessary steps with detailed justifications in all applicable
places. 2) Answer every question in a new page and answer all sub-parts of a question together. 3) Any
assumptions made in a question should be mentioned in the answer sheet. 4) Enclose all numerical answers
in a box.

1 Imagine that you are trying to estimate the cardiac output of a patient by placing an
electrostatic flowmeter across one of his arteries. Can you identify at least 2 factors that may
cause errors in this measurement?
(2 marks)
2 In a gun-fight, a soldier was injured with a steel shrapnel and to save his life, it had to be
removed surgically. If you were the doctor, which of the following imaging modalities would
you choose to locate the shrapnel within his body before surgery – Ultrasound scan, CT scan
or MRI? Compare the modality of your choice with the other two.
(2 marks)
3 In a mono-phasic defibrillator, the energy discharged by the capacitor with respect to time is
given by the expression = , where R = value of chest resistance = 100 Ω and C =
value of capacitor. If the initial energy stored in C = 300 mJ and it loses 90% of this energy in
8 ms during defibrillation, what is its value? Also what was its charging voltage?
(2 marks)
4 A 100 μA current was flowing through a person towards ground from an ungrounded medical
instrument, giving him a micro-shock. If his body resistance was 500 Ω, what value of the
grounding resistance should be used on this instrument to reduce this current to 0.2 μA?
(2 marks)
5 A medical system has been represented as 4 + 5 = 2 , where y is the output and x is the
input. Determine its static sensitivity and time constant.
(2 marks)
6 The ECG of a person
suspected of heart
disease was measured
as shown in the figure.
During measurement,
an interfering signal of
sinusoidal nature was
observed due to which
the doctor delayed the
diagnosis.
a If this low frequency interference occurred every time & its source was untraceable and if you
were one of the designers of this ECG machine, what signal conditioning method would you
apply to remove this interference?
b If your co-designer identified that adding a filter-bank in the measurement setup may not be
the best solution to this issue, what could be its reason?
c As the doctor couldn’t delay the diagnosis further, he finally concluded by thoroghly observing
the above graph that this person is likely to have an issue in the heart. How did he come to
 this conclusion from the above graph? (Hint: He calculated a numerical value from which he
made this diagnosis)
(1 mark for each sub part)
7 A patient was asked to breath normally by a doctor, while he applied a thoracic
plethysmometer to measure his lung volumes. Which two lung volumes were measured by
the doctor during this activity? With a neat figure, demonstrate how a capacitive sensor with
dc excitation can be used to determine changes in lung volumes. Provide necessary
explanation for your circuit.
(3 marks)
8 While measuring ECG using Einthovan’s triangle, the cardiac vector was aligned to the lead I
at 0 degree and 90 degrees at two separate instances with the corresponding amplitudes
being 2 mV and 3 mV respectively. Determine the voltage induced in the three leads during
these two instances.
(3 marks)
9 A surgeon says that it is possible to diagnose any issue with the semilunar valve of the aorta
by measuring the pressure difference between the left atrium and left ventricle, as well as the
cardiac output. Can you theoretically substantiate his claim with the help of a neat figure?
(3 marks)
10 In a bipolar EEG montage, two adjacent electrodes had impedances = 4700 and 1500 Ω
respectively at EEG frequencies. The ground electrode had an impedance of 2500 Ω. The input
impedance of each differential input of the amplifier to ground was 1 MΩ, and the instrument
had a CMRR of 80 dB. The power-line displacement current to the patient was measured as
400 nA. The amplitude of the patient’s EEG at the input of the amplifier was 12 μV.
a What will be SNR at the amplifier’s output if two identical electrodes were used instead of the
given ones?
b How much power-line interference will be seen at the amplifier’s input due to electrode
mismatch?
c What will be the new common mode voltage if a driven-right-leg circuit is implemented in this
measurement setup with the feedback resistor of the inverting amplifier Rf = 5 MΩ and the
input resistor Ra = 10 kΩ?
(2 marks for each sub part)
11 An experiment was being conducted to evaluate the action potential of a nerve fibre placed in
a bathing medium. Hence the micropipette electrode was inserted into the fibre while the
reference electrode was placed in the bathing medium. The action potential was amplified
using an ideal opamp, with the signal being referenced to the ground of the opamp. Draw the
scenario presented satisfying the following conditions as well.
o There should be only one opamp used & its biasing using two +15 V batteries should be
clearly shown.
o A Band Pass Filter (BPF) with 2 capacitors & 2 resistors should be also designed around
this opamp such that it passes signals from 100 Hz to 2 kHz only. The upper cut-off
frequency of this BPF may be obtained using a 100 nF capacitor.
o The gain of this opamp in the absence of these filter capacitors should be –8.
(6 marks)
12 Draw the eq. circuit of an EMG measurement setup with two skin electrodes, clearly depicting
the various impedances & voltage sources occuring between the two input terminals of a non-
ideal amplifier. Mention what these impedances and voltage sources are. Ignore any
insignificant impedance in the path.
(6 marks)