Bioimpedance measurements have not been very actively employed tools for measuring the
functions of the physiological systems. Practically the only method applied clinically has been the
impedance plethysmography measuring mainly the cardiac output. This method has many
limitations due to elementary modelling and theoretical framework used in the development of the
measurements. Recent development in instrumentation and computer modelling has generated a
new interest in bioimpedance research. During recent years active research has produced new
emerging methods and procedures employing bioimpedance methods. Also in Finland the research
has been very active and many groups have interesting work in progress.
The aim of this seminar was to give a review of the new bioimpedance methods and
research as well as to provide a good basis for more active cooperation among the researchers in
Finland. The subjects included impedance tomography, impedance cardiography, modelling of the
human thorax for impedance measurements, neonatal impedance measurements etc.
One of the principle inventors of impedance tomography, Prof. Brian Brown from the
University of Sheffield, U.K., gave two interesting plenary lectures on the instrumentation and
theoretical basis of the bioimpedance measurements and on the recent progress on impedance
tomography.
Some forty participants, mainly from Finland, attended the seminar which was organized by
the Ragnar Granit Institute and the
Finnish Society for Medical Physics and Medical Engineering.
The seminar was sponsored by the Ragnar Granit Foundation.
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