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Biomedical Engineering Research Group (BME)
Professor Tapio Seppänen, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Faculty of Technology, and Professor Timo Jämsä, Department of Medical Technology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oulu
tapio.seppanen(at)ee.oulu.fi, timo.jamsa(at)oulu.fi
The mission of the group is to carry out basic, applied and translational research in biomedical engineering. We focus on the cardiovascular system, the central nervous system, the respiration system and the musculoskeletal system.
Scientific Progress
Cardiovascular and Respiratory System Research
Vectorcardiography (VCG) determines the direction and magnitude of the heart’s electrical forces. Interpretation of digital three-dimensional vectorcardiography in clinical applications requires robust methods and novel approaches for calculating the vectorcardiographic features. We developed new methods for vectorcardiographic signal processing. The robustness of selected pre-processing and feature extraction algorithms was improved, novel methods for detecting the injured myocardial tissue from electrocardiogram (ECG) were devised, and dynamical behaviour of vectorcardiographic features was determined. The results highlight the importance of robust algorithms in a VCG analysis. The results should be taken into account in further studies, so that vectorcardiography can be utilized more effectively in clinical applications.
Central Nervous System Research
Within the last few decades, electroencephalogram (EEG) has become a widely used tool for the automatic assessment of depth of anaesthesia. However, the measurement is challenged by simultaneous administration of different types of anaesthetics, which is the common practice in operating theatres today. Especially, the assessment of depth of anaesthesia induced by supplementing the primary anaesthetic drug, i.e. the hypnotic agent, with an opioid has been raised as one of the major problems in the field. We showed that co-administration of opioid significantly modifies the mutual relations of the EEG changes and the clinical signs of the patient. Furthermore, remifentanil was found to significantly affect the EEG itself, more specifically, the power spectrum and derived quantitative parameters during propofol infusion. This effect is strongly dependent on the level of anaesthesia. Finally, by utilizing the results on the effects of remifentanil, a technology was developed for the assessment of depth of propofol-remifentanil anaesthesia. The technology is based on improving the determination of the anaesthetic state of the patient by EEG-based separation of the effects of propofol and remifentanil. The study thus offers potential for the development of more advanced systems for automatic monitoring of depth of anaesthesia.
Musculoskeletal System Research
Osteoporotic Fracture Risk Study: We have showed that structural parameters can discriminate femoral neck fractures from controls, even within subjects with similar bone density (BMD). The method provides additional information beyond standard clinical BMD. We have provided systematic evidence that etiology and pathophysiology differ between femoral neck and trochanteric hip fractures, which is likely to improve patient-specific fracture risk assessment. We also showed that dual-energy digital radiography can be applied for the bone assessment, and it correlates well with the mechanical properties of bone.
Biomechanics of Bone and Biomaterials: In a joint study with the
Fall Detection: We completed our field test on fall detection. We recorded totally 13 real-life falls. We were the first to collect acceleration data during a fall that resulted in a hip fracture. The data give valuable information on fall mechanics and tools for improved fall detection.
Personnel
professors & doctors |
15 |
doctoral students |
10 |
total |
25 |
person years |
18 |
External Funding
Source |
EUR |
Academy of Finland |
70 000 |
Ministry of Education and Culture |
123 000 |
Tekes |
238 000 |
other domestic public |
40 000 |
domestic private |
56 000 |
international |
223 000 |
total |
750 000 |
Doctoral Theses
Selected Publications
Elabbas LE, Finnilä MA, Herlin M, Stern N, Trossvik C, Bowers WJ, Nakai J, Tuukkanen J, Heimeier RA, Åkesson A & Håkansson H (2011) Perinatal exposure to environmental contaminants detected in Canadian Arctic human populations changes bone geometry and biomechanical properties in rat offspring. J Toxicol Environ Health A 74(19): 1304-1318.
Elabbas LE, Herlin M, Finnilä MA, Rendel F, Stern N, Trossvik C, Bowers WJ, Nakai J, Tuukkanen J, Viluksela M, Heimeier RA, Akesson A & Håkansson H (2011) In utero and lactational exposure to Aroclor 1254 affects bone geometry, mineral density and biomechanical properties of rat offspring. Toxicol Lett 207(1): 82-88.
Huesa C, Yadav MC, Finnilä MA, Goodyear SR, Robins SP, Tanner KE, Aspden RM, Millán JL & Farquharson C (2011) PHOSPHO1 is essential for mechanically competent mineralization and the avoidance of spontaneous fractures. Bone 8(5): 1066-1074.
Huttunen K, Keränen H, Väyrynen E, Pääkkönen R & Leino T (2011) Effect of cognitive load on speech prosody in aviation: evidence from military simulator flights. Applied Ergonomics 42: 348-357.
Junno JA, Paananen M, Karppinen J, Tammelin T, Niinimäki J, Niskanen M, Nieminen M, Kamula K, Kaakinen M, Tervonen O, Tuukkanen J (2011) Influence of physical activity on vertebral size. Ost Int 22: 371-372.
Jämsä T, Ahola R & Korpelainen R (2011) Measurement of osteogenic exercise - How to interpret accelerometric data? Perspective paper. Front Physio 2:73, doi:10.3389/fphys.2011.00073.
Kangas M, Vikman I, Nyberg L, Korpelainen R, Lindblom J & Jämsä T (2011) Comparing real-life accidental falls in older people to intentional falls in middle-aged test persons. Gait Posture.
Kenttä T, Karsikas M, Junttila J, Perkiömäki J, Seppänen T, Kiviniemi A, Nieminen T, Lehtimäki T, Nikus K, Lehtinen R, Viik J, Kähönen M & Huikuri H (2011) QRS-T morphology measured from exercise electrocardiogram as a predictor of cardiac mortality. Europace 13(5): 701-707.
Kiviniemi A, Frances M, Tiinanen S, Craen R, Rachinsky M, Petrella R, Seppänen T, Huikuri H, Tulppo M & Shoemaker JK (2011) Alpha-adrenergic effects on low frequency oscillations in blood pressure and R-R intervals during sympathetic activation. Experimental Physiology. In print
Kiviniemi A, Tulppo M, Hautala A, Mäkikallio T, Perkiömäki J, Seppänen T & Huikuri H (2011) Long-term outcome of patients with chronotropic imcompetence after an acute myocardial infarction. Annals of Medicine 43: 33-39.
Korhonen RK, Julkunen P, Jurvelin JS & Saarakkala S (2011) Structural and compositional changes in peri- and extracellular matrix of osteoarthritic cartilage modulate chondrocyte morphology. Cell Molec Bioeng 4(3): 484-494.
Kortelainen J, Väyrynen E & Seppänen T (2011) Depth of anesthesia during multidrug infusion: separating the effects of propofol and remifentanil using the spectral features of EEG. IEEE Tr Biom Eng 58(5): 1216-1223.
Kortelainen J, Väyrynen E & Seppänen T (2011) Isomap approach to EEG-based assessment of neurophysiological changes during anesthesia. IEEE Tr Neur Syst Reh Eng 19(2): 113-120.
Matinolli M, Korpelainen JT, Sotaniemi KA, Myllylä VV & Korpelainen R (2011) Recurrent falls and mortality in Parkinson’s disease: a prospective two-year follow-up study. Acta Neurol Scand 123(3): 193-200.
Nieminen P, Finnilä MA, Tuukkanen J, Jämsä T & Mustonen AM (2011) Preservation of bone mass and biomechanical properties during winter sleep-the raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides) as a novel model species. Bone 48(4): 878-884.
Nissi R, Perhomaa M, Silvennoinen L, Halonen V, Rasila R, Winblad I & Ignatius J (2011) Hereditary isolated metatarsophalangeal arthritis. Scand J Rheumatology 40: 20-25.
Paalanne N, Niinimäki J, Karppinen J, Taimela S, Mutanen P, Takatalo J, Korpelainen R & Tervonen O (2011) Assessment of association between low back pain and paraspinal muscle atrophy using opposed-phase MRI: a population-based study among young adults. Spine 36(23): 1961-1968.
Pulkkinen P, Glüer C-C & Jämsä T (2011) Investigation of differences between hip fracture types: a worthy strategy for improved risk assessment and fracture prevention. Perspective paper. Bone 49(4): 600-604.
Pulkkinen P, Partanen J, Jalovaara P, Nieminen MT & Jämsä T (2011) Combination of radiograph-based trabecular and geometrical parameters can discriminate cervical hip fractures from controls in individuals with BME in non-osteoporotic range. Bone 49(2): 290-294.
Silfverhuth MJ, Kortelainen J, Ruohonen J, Suominen K, Niinimäki J, Sonkajärvi E, Kiviniemi V, Alahuhta S, Jäntti V, Tervonen O & Seppänen T (2011) A characteristic time sequence of epileptic activity in EEG during a dynamic penicillin-induced focal epilepsy - a preliminary study. Seizure 20(7): 513-519.
Toljamo PS, Lammentausta E, Pulkkinen P, Tervonen O, Jämsä T & Nieminen MT (2011) Dual-energy digital radiography in the assessment of bone mechanical properties.
Tulppo M, Kiviniemi A, Hautala A, Kallio M, Seppänen T, Tiinanen S, Mäkikallio T & Huikuri H (2011) Sympatho-vagal interaction in the recovery phase of exercise. Clinical Physiology and Functional Imaging 31: 272-281.
Tölli H, Birr E, Sandström K, Jämsä T & Jalovaara P (2011) Calcium sulfate with stearic acid as an encouraging carrier for reindeer bone protein extract. Materials 4: 1321-1332.
Tölli H, Kujala S, Jämsä T & Jalovaara P (2011) Reindeer bone extract can heal the critical-size rat femur defect. Int Orthop 35(4): 615-622.
Väyrynen P, Noponen K & Seppänen T (2011) An experimental word prediction system with integrated prediction components. Journal of Quantitative Linguistics. In print.
Väyrynen E, Toivanen J, Seppänen T (2011) Classification of emotion in spoken Finnish using vowel-length segments: increasing reliability with a fusion technique. Speech Communication 53(3): 269-282.