Croatian Academy of Engineering (HATZ)
2017
Vol. 12(2) 2017 - 20 pages - English
Biomedical engineering is an interdisciplinary field combining knowledge of engineering (electrical engineering, computer science, information and communication technology, physics, chemistry ...), biology and medicine. The development of medical science, health service organisation and health care at the turn of this century is closely and inseparably linked to the development of electronic, computer, information and communication technologies.
Electrical equipment and accessories are an integral part of almost every medical examination/intervention, and computer and information and communication systems are now an inseparable part of everyday life.
Electroencephalography (EEG) is one of the basic neurophysiological methods of registration of the brain bioelectric activity. It was first mentioned in the thirties of the last century in the works of neuropsychiatrist Hans Berger. He was recording, using sensitive galvanometer, the first signals that belong to the alpha frequency range, according to today’s classification. EEG as a diagnostic method begins routinely carried out with the first commercially available electroencephalograph in the fifties of the last century. Here we must point
out Professor Ante Šantić who already in 1957, as an employee of the Institute of Electrical Engineering in Zagreb, designed and commercialised 12 channel electroencephalograph, the first in South-eastern/Central Europe. Upon arrival at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Zagreb, in 1972 he founded the Laboratory for Biomedical Electronics and starts lecturing on Biomedical Electronics, for which he wrote the textbook of the same name, and thus lays the foundation of biomedical engineering in Croatia.
Technological progress made it possible to process electroencephalographic signals on the digital computer. Already in the beginning of the seventies, it was carried out on the PDP-8 computer by Prof. Stanko Tonković, PhD, Dipl Eng, an employee of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering in Zagreb, and Velimir Išgum, PhD, Dipl Eng, an employee of the Clinical Hospital Centre Zagreb. Velimir Išgum, PhD, continues his career in the Department of Neurology, University Hospital Centre Zagreb, where he participated in the founding of the Laboratory of evoked potentials. Additionally, he founded the Laboratory for Cognitive and Experimental Neurophysiology. Several papers listed thereafter represent a continuation of research that started in these laboratories. Initiation and development of this inter- and multi-disciplinary area would be impossible without the support and active participation of medical doctors. This high quality and fruitful collaboration took place to this day, which is directly visible in the presented papers. The following papers presented some of the current research projects in the field of neurophysiology that uses measurement, processing and analysis of the electroencephalographic signals. The first paper presents several modalities for brain-computer interface (BCI), very actively investigated area in the last years. The following paper deals with the application of invasive EEG monitoring in the surgical treatment of patients with pharmacoresistant epilepsy. The third document describes the use of the evoked potentials in the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis. The fourth paper describes the diagnostic value of vibration evoked potentials, while the fifth one deals with auditory evoked potentials with a focus on the used stimuli and paradigms.
