Füsioloogiliste protsesside uurimine ja modelleerimine ning meditsiinitehnika arendused Tartu Ülikooli biofüüsika laboris
Creators: name: Jagomägi, Kersti
name: Raamat, Rein
name: Talts, Jaak
Publisher: name: Tartu Ülikooli ajaloo küsimusi
Year: 2018

description: The Laboratory of Biophysics founded in 1961 was the first interdisciplinary lab at the University of Tartu. Its foundation became possible as the faculties of natural sciences at the university included a Faculty of Medicine and cooperation between several units in the field of biomedical engineering was already in place. In 1970, the laboratory had 13 employees (3 physiologists, 2 mathematicians, 3 electric engineers, 1 chemist and support personnel) and was comparatively well-equipped (electronic analogue computers EMU-10 and MN-7, a magnetic tape recorder, Böhlau metabolimeter, rapid CO2 measuring device GUM-2, a nitrograph, a mass spectrometer for gas analysis). As was typical for closed Soviet economy, a number of basic devices for physiological research were designed locally by the staff and built with the assistance of the experimental workshop of the university. This article includes a rich collection of photos illustrating the devices originally built in the laboratory and their use in physiological research (a 12-channel graphical recorder, ECG analyser, veloergometer, blood pressure measuring devices, several modifications of physiographs, etc.). The analogue computers EMU-10 were mainly used for modelling the human circulatory and respiratory system. For smaller modelling tasks (e.g., electronic correction of the Böhlau metabolimeter to reduce its inertia, improvement of the frequency response of the skin blood flow measuring device, etc.), the MN-7 device was used. A specific instrument (thermocoagulator) was developed for stereotactic neurosurgery to treat patients with Parkinson’s disease. The process of creating controlled lesions in the human brain was simulated on the EMU-10 and then optimized. The most significant field of study at the laboratory was continuous non-invasive blood pressure (CNIBP) measurement, as well as developing instruments for it. The method of indirect beat-to-beat differential oscillometric measurement of the mean blood pressure for every cardiac cycle was originally introduced by laboratory staff members Vello Reeben and Maria Epler in the early 1960s and patented in 1969. This method (known as the Reeben &amp; Epler’s method) was further advanced in the Laboratory of Biophysics and a corresponding elaborate device (UT Physiograph) was built. Later models of the UT Physiograph also provided heart rate, pulse amplitude, respiration rate and skin blood flow signals in addition to continuous blood pressure readings. The original CNIBP measuring device became eligible for industrial manufacturing, which was started in the Leningrad Krasnogvardeyets Plant in 1972. Unfortunately, production soon ceased, as the comparatively sophisticated pneumosystem was too complicated for the producer. At the same time, more than 40 copies of the device were built at the University of Tartu, ordered by leading scientific centres of the USSR. After Estonia regained independence, the Laboratory of Biophysics was integrated into the Institute of Physiology and continued work as the biophysics research group from 1993. Since then, active cooperation was launched with the universities of Kuopio, Oslo and Linköping and the UT Physiograph was clinically compared with volume clamp monitors (Finapres, Portapres). In open economic conditions, the need for manufacturing equipment in the university workshops decreased and the research activities of the biophysics group have mostly been related to the computer simulation of oscillometric measurement, reducing the method’s errors and improving its reliability.
description: Tartu Ülikooli ajaloo küsimusi, Vol 46 (2018): Reaal- ja loodusteadused rahvusülikoolis