Glossary

Basic Medical Instruments and Techniques

Glossary

Berger’s waves – are neural oscillations in the frequency range of 7.5–12.5 Hz arising from synchronous and coherent (in phase or constructive) electrical activity of thalamic pacemaker cells in humans.

Blood pressure – (BP) is the pressure exerted by the circulating blood against the walls of blood vessels.

Electromagnetic (EM) radiation – Electromagnetic radiation is a form of energy that is all around us and takes many forms, such as radio waves, microwaves, X-rays and gamma rays.

Hypotension – Hypotension is abnormally low blood pressure.

Incubator – is a device used to grow and maintain microbiological cultures or cell cultures. and maintains optimal temperature, humidity and other conditions such as the carbon dioxide (CO₂) and oxygen content of the atmosphere inside.

Manometer – is an instrument for measuring the pressure acting on a column of fluid, consisting of a U-shaped tube of liquid in which a difference in the pressures acting in the two arms of the tube causes the liquid to reach different heights in the two arms.

Oscilloscope – It is a laboratory instrument commonly used to display and analyze the waveform of electronic signals. In effect, the device draws a graph of the instantaneous signal voltage as a function of time.

Piezoelectric Effect – It is the ability of certain materials to generate an electric charge in response to applied mechanical stress.

Radioisotopes – They are radioactive isotopes of an element. Different isotopes of the same element have the same number of protons in their atomic nuclei but differing numbers of neutrons. They can also be defined as atoms that contain an unstable combination of neutrons and protons.