Medical Diagnostic Devices

Medical diagnostic devices are machines designed to aid in the diagnosis and treatment of medical problems. They are usually designed with rigorous safety standards.

There are several basic types of medical diagnostic equipment:

Medical diagnostic equipment include medical imaging machines are used to aid diagnosis. These include ultrasound, MRI, CAT-scans, PET, and x-ray machines.

Therapeutic equipment include infusion pumps (by far the most common), medical lasers and LASIK surgical machines.

Life support equipment is used to maintain a patient's bodily function. These include medical ventilators, heart-lung machines, ECMO, and dialysis machines.

Medical monitors allow medical staff to measure a patient's medical state. These measure ECGS, EEGS, blood pressure and dissolved gases in the blood.

Medical laboratory equipment automates or helps analyses of blood, urine and genes.

A Biomedical equipment technician or BMET is a vital component of the healthcare delivery system. Employed primarily by hospitals, BMETs are the people responsible for maintaining a facility's medical equipment.

A sphygmomanometer or blood pressure meter is an inflatable cuff used to measure blood pressure. The word comes from the Greeksphygmus (pulse), plus the scientific term manometer (pressure meter). The device was invented by Samuel Siegfried Karl Ritter von Basch. Scipone Riva Rocci, an Italian physician, introduced an easy to handle variation in 1896. Harvey Cushing discovered this device 1901 and popularized it.

A sphygmomanometer usually consists of an inflatable cuff, a measuring unit (the manometer), a tube to connect the two, and (in models that don't inflate automatically) an inflation bulb also connected by a tube to the cuff. The inflation bulb contains a one-way valve to prevent inadvertent leak of pressure while there is an adjustable screw valve for the operator to allow the pressure in the system to drop in a controlled manner.

Medical Daignostic Equipment – Heart Rate Monitor

A heart rate monitor is a device that allows a user to monitor their heart rate whilst exercising. It consists of two elements, a chest strap and a wrist receiver (which usually doubles as a watch). Advanced models additionally measure heart rate variability to assess a user's fitness.

The heart rate monitor was invented by the Australianphysicist, Robert Treffene. He appeared on the television show The New Inventors with his device, which was made with swimmers in mind.

The chest strap has electrodes in contact with the skin to monitor the electrical voltages in the heart (see electrocardiography for more details). When a heart beat is detected a radio signal is sent out which the receiver uses to determine the current heart rate. More expensive monitors send coding signals from the chest strap, this prevent a user's wrist receiver from receiving signals from other nearby exercisers.

There are a wide number of receiver designs, with all sorts of advanced features. These include average heart rate over exercise period, time in a specific heart rate zone, food energy burned, and detailed logging that can be downloaded to a PC.

Medical Diagnostic Devices - Stethoscope

The stethoscope is used in aid of diagnosing certain diseases. The stethoscope is able to transmit certain sounds and exclude others. Before the stethoscope was invented, doctors placed their ear next to the patient's body in hope of hearing something.

Stethoscopes are often considered as a symbol of the doctor's profession, as doctors are often seen or depicted with a stethoscope hanging around their neck.

Stethoscopes are also used by mechanics to isolate sounds of a particular moving engine part for diagnosis.

Types of stethoscopes

There are currently two types of stethoscopes: acoustic and electronic.

Acoustic stethoscopes are familiar to most people, and operate on the transmission of sound from the chestpiece, via air-filled hollow tubes, to the listener's ears. The chestpiece usually consists of two sides that can be placed against the patient for sensing sound – a diaphragm (plastic disc) or bell (hollow cup). If the diaphragm is placed on the patient, body sounds vibrate the diaphragm, creating acoustic pressure waves which travel up the tubing to the listener's ears. If the bell is placed on the patient, the vibrations of the skin directly produce acoustic pressure waves traveling up to the listener's ears. The bell transmits low frequency sounds, while the diaphragm transmits higher frequency sounds. This 2-sided stethoscope was invented by Rappaport and Sprague in the early part of the 20th century. The problem with acoustic stethoscopes is that the sound level is extremely low, making diagnosis difficult.

Electronic stethoscopes overcome the low sound levels by amplifiying body sounds. Currently, a number of companies offer electronic stethoscopes, and it can be expected that within a few years, the electronic stethoscope will have eclipsed acoustic devices.

MEDmarketplace.com has a large selection of medical diagnostic devices.