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Volume 1. No 3. 04.05.1994
Ragnar Granit Institute, P.O.Box 692, FIN-33101 Tampere, Finland
Editor: Jaakko Malmivuo, www.rgi.fi/persons/malmivuo/, ISSN: 1456-4343
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Assistant of Biomedical Engineering
The post of Assistant of Biomedical En gineering is open for application.
The post will be appointed for a term of five years starting on the 1st of August, 1994.
The deadline for the applications is the 17th of May, 1994.
For more information please contact Professor Jaakko Malmivuo.
Visitors at the Ragnar Granit Institute
His Excellency, Ambassador of Italy, Mr. Ramiero Avogadro
visited The Ragnar Granit Institute on Thursday, on the 21th of April.
The Ambassador was accompanied by The Italian Consul, Mr. Olli Kivekäs,
and Rector Timo Lepistö.
Professor Jaakko Malmivuo hosted the visit and informed
His Excellency on the research and education of the Institute.
His Excellency also had the opportunity to see several research projects of the Institute.
Doctoral Dissertation of Ilpo Rimpiläinen
Lich. Med. Ilpo Rimpiläinen's doctoral dis sertation will take place
on Friday, the 13th of May, at 12 o'clock noon in the small audi torium,
at The Department of Clinical Sciences, The University of Tampere
(in connection with University Hospital). The dissertation is a public occasion
and everyone is welcome to attend it.. Ilpo Rimpiläinen has specialized in
clinical neurophysiology mainly in The University Hospital of Tampere,
but has also worked in various other central hospitals in Finland and Sweden,
and currently at the Karolinska Hospital in Stockholm. His thesis is part of
The Ragnar Granit Institute's project: "Electro magnetic stimulation of central nervous system".
In this project he has worked several periods as a researcher in the
Institute by studying the stimulation of facial nerves. His thesis consists of
an introduction and five publications in reputed medical journals.
As the opponent will serve John Rothwell, Ph.D., who is with
M.R.C. Human Movement and Balance Unit, London. He was one of the first
to apply the magnetic stimulation technique (since Ph.D. Anthony Barker
brought this method to London in 1985) and has been very productive in this field.
Most of his papers have been published in journals of neurology and clinical neurophysiology.
Dr Rothwell arrives in Tampere on May 11th, Wednesday afternoon.
Because the next day happens to be a holiday, he will not give any public lecture,
but will visit the Institute during his stay.
The doctoral dissertation of Ilpo Rimpiläinen is the second Doctor of Medicine
dissertation in the projects of the Ragnar Granit Institute and financed by the Institute.
The first one was the dissertation of Sakari Oja in September 1993.
That dissertation concerned on magneto cardiography.
Hannu Eskola
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Research Projects at The Ragnar Granit Institute: 2.
Magnetic
Stimulation of the Facial Nerve.
In 1985 a project was started at the Ragnar Granit Institute
on the design of a magnetic stimulation device. That was designed in 1986
by Mr. Risto Rossi. In 1988 the project was continued at the Ragnar Granit Institute
and the University Hospital of Tampere with the clinical phase under the title:
"Electric and magnetic stimulation of the central nervous system".
From the very beginning the project covered both the technical development
(construction of devices and evaluation of stimulation fields) and the potential clinical applications.
Lich. Med. Ilpo Rimpiläinen began the stimulation studies of facial nerves
in 1989, together with a group of various specialists of otolaryngology,
neurosurgery and neuro physiology. The promising results of the
preliminary experiments encouraged him to choose this as the subject of his thesis,
under the guidance of docents Veikko Häkkinen, M.D. and Hannu Eskola, Ph.D.
The experimental research was supported by the extensive technical knowledge of
electromagnetic stimula tion in The Ragnar Granit Institute. During the following five years,
more than 50 papers were published within the project, from which eight are full papers
in reputed medical journals.. Ilpo Rimpiläinen first studied the use of magnetic stimulation
for diagnosis of Bell's facial palsy (kasvohermohalvaus in Finnish). It appeared that
during the first four days of palsy magnetic stimulation serves a reliable prognosis
for the patient, whereas the conven tional electric surface stimulation is applicable
after five days from the onset of the palsy.
In scientific medical journals many opinions were given as to the site of excitation
in the facial nerve when stimulated magnetically. For this purpose Ilpo Rimpiläinen
performed experiments in the operating theater, where the facial nerve was stimulated
intracranially by direct electric stimulation and succeeded in locating the site of excitation
to the internal acoustic meatus.
The last section of the thesis deals with classifying the responses
to magnetic stimulation of facial nerves into three categories.
The groups differ both by latencies and lateralization. In a publication by
Rimpiläinen (accepted to EEG Journal) the concept of long latency responses is introduced,
as well as a theory for their origin. This determination was based on using both
magnetic and electric transcranial stimulators.
Hannu Eskola
Figure 1. Principle of magnetic stimulation.
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