Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Bioelectric potentials are involved in nerve impulses, brain conductivity, heartbeat, muscle
contraction, etc. They are caused by ionic activity in excitable cells, such as nerves and muscles.
Bioelectric potentials can also be called signals, or electric voltages.
The nervous system controls the movement of the body. The neuron, or nerve cell (神經細胞,
神經元) is the basic component of nervous system. The nucleus of the nerve cell is located in
the spinal cord.
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is relatively impermeable to sodium, but quite permeable to potassium. Therefore, most of the
sodium is kept outside the cell, but potassium can diffuse out of the cell. This is a passive
process. This keeps the potential inside the cell negative compared to the outside of the cell.
This cell voltage is called resting potential and is usually -70 mV to -90 mV. The cell is said to
be polarized in its resting state.
During each heartbeat, electrical stimuli spreads across the heart, causing potential differences
between the polarized and depolarized cells. These potential differences appear collectively on
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the surface of skin as electric voltages that can be measured by electrodes suitably placed on
the skin. They are displayed as specific bioelectric signal patterns, known as electrocardiogram
abbreviated ECG.
The ECG is usually recorded on a chart or displayed on a cathode ray oscilloscope. The wave form
measured at the body‘s surface depends not only on the individual person but also on the position
of the electrodes. For a typical ECG pattern recorded on the surface of the body, peak
amplitude values are as follows:
P-wave: 0.2 mV
QRS-complex: 1 mV
T- wave: 0.1 to 0.5 mV
The shape of the signal at any one location will depend on the state of health of the heart
muscles. Consequently the study of an ECG gives diagnostic information about the heart. Some
common cardiac disorders that can be diagnosed with an ECG are:
• High pulse rate (tachycardia)
• Low pulse rate (bradycardia)
• Ventricular fibrillation – irregular contraction of heart muscles
• Damaged heart muscle – wave heights are reduced
3. The defibrillator
The heart is able to perform its important pumping function only through precisely synchronized
action of the heart muscles. Under the action potentials the two auricles chambers contract and
pump blood into two ventricles. After a delay time, the ventricles are synchronously activated to
pump blood into body and lungs. If this synchronism is lost, it is called fibrillation. The condition
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of fibrillation is observed on an ECG as a very irregular trace. The fibrillation of ventricles can
lead to death in a very short time.
To stop defibrillation, two electrodes or paddles are placed on the skin one on each side of the
heart. The potential difference across the electrodes is about 5000V and the energy stored in a
10.0 µ F capacitor of the defibrillator is order of 100J. The effect of the electric shock is to
make all the heart muscles suffer a major contraction. This should then jolt the heart back to
its normal rhythm.
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An artificial pacemaker, in-situ, shown by X-ray imaging.
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5. Physiological effects of current
The electrical conduction is the dominant factor when relatively low frequency (lower than 100
kHz) electric current is applied to the tissue.
Electric current has three mains effects on the tissue; they are electrolysis, neural stimulation
and heating. Neural stimulation is potentially the most dangerous effect, as the nervous system
controls the two important systems: the circulation of blood and respiration.
5.1. Electrolysis
Electrolysis will take place when a direct current (current with a frequency below 0.1 Hz) is
passed through tissues which contain free ions. The positively charged ions will migrate to the
negative electrode, and the negatively charged ions to the positive electrode. If two electrodes
are placed on the skin, and a direct current of 100 µ A is passed beneath them for a few
minutes, small ulcers will be formed beneath the electrodes. These ulcers take a very long time
to heal. 10 µ A is the limit of safety for such dc current.
At frequencies above 10 Hz, electrolysis appears to be reversible and the dominant effect is
neural stimulation. The co-ordinated pumping activity of the heart can be disrupted by electric
currents which pass through the heart. This is called fibrillation and can continue after the
current is removed. Stimulation becomes increasingly difficult at frequencies above 1 kHz.
There are two major ways of stimulation: indirect stimulation (stimulation through the skin), and
direct stimulation (direct stimulation of the heart).
Indirect stimulation
For main commercial supply frequencies (50-60 Hz),
the threshold of the sensation is about 1 mA. A 5 mA
current is the maximum harmless current above which
sensory nerves are stimulated. At about 15 mA, the
skeletal muscles will be stimulated to contract
continuously, and it will not be possible to release an
object held in the hands (can’t let go). As the current
is further raised, it becomes increasingly painful, and
difficult to breathe; at about 100 mA ventricular fibrillation begin. Currents up to 500 mA will
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cause ventricular fibrillation which will continue after the current stops flowing, and burns will
be caused by the heating of the tissue. At currents above 500 mA the heart will restart
spontaneously after the current is removed-this is the principle of the defibrillator.
Direct stimulation
The direct passage of current through heart causes ventricular fibrillation even the amount of
current is as small as 100µ A, which is much smaller than the threshold current by indirect
stimulation.
At frequency above 10 kHz, electrical currents will not stimulate nerves but they will cause
heating through I2R. Radio frequency energy (usually 27 MHz) is applied between two metal
plates so that part of the energy is absorbed in the tissue, this is known as diathermy. High
frequencies between 400 kHz and 30 MHz are used in surgical diathermia/electrosurgery to
give either coagulation or cutting.
6. Electrical safety
Electromedical equipment is a possible source of hazards to the patient. In many cases the
patients directly connected to the equipment so that a fault current may flow through the
patient.
The skin can have a resistance as high as 1 M Ω for dry skin and falling to 1k Ω for wet skin.
Internally the body resistance is about 50 Ω. For a person with wet skin touching both terminal
of a 240 V voltage source, the current would gives rise to
I=V/R=240/2050=117mA, which is enough to cause ventricular fibrillation.
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Safety devices
Checklist Unit_8
• recall electric charge, electrostatic forces
• recall the unit of charge and charge of electrons
• Understand conductors and insulators
• Recall the definition of electric potential difference
• Recall capacitor: charge stored on a capacitor, energy stored on a capacitor, calculation of
capacitance
• Recall the definition of electric current
• Application of Ohm’s law
• Recall resistance and resistivity of resistors
• Recall electric power and energy
• Dc current and ac current, average power and peak power, effective (rms) and peak current or
voltage
• Recall resting/action potentials, related polarization /depolarization of a nerve cell
• Describe the basic features of a typical ECG waveform
• Know the basic electric safety precautions