Bachelor of Biomedical Engineering Flashcards
7 cards from real BE/B Eng Bachelor of Engineering practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Bachelor of Biomedical Engineering flashcards as text
In biomaterials science, what is the 'foreign body response' (FBR)?
Answer: A cascade of inflammatory and wound-healing events triggered by implantation of a non-biological material
The foreign body response is a chronic inflammatory reaction in which macrophages and foreign body giant cells surround an implant, often leading to fibrous encapsulation that can impair device function.
A prosthetic heart valve must be designed to withstand cyclic loading. Which material failure mode is most relevant to this long-term cyclic stress?
Answer: Fatigue failure from repeated stress cycles
A prosthetic heart valve opens and closes approximately 40 million times per year; fatigue failure, which occurs at stress levels below the yield strength after many cycles, is the dominant design concern.
Which physiological parameter does pulse oximetry non-invasively estimate?
Answer: Arterial oxygen saturation (SpO₂)
Pulse oximetry uses two wavelengths of light (red and infrared) to measure the differential absorption by oxyhemoglobin and deoxyhemoglobin, providing a non-invasive estimate of arterial oxygen saturation.
In a drug delivery system, what does 'zero-order release kinetics' mean?
Answer: Drug release at a constant rate independent of the remaining drug concentration in the device
Zero-order kinetics describes a constant drug release rate over time, which is ideal for maintaining a steady therapeutic plasma concentration and avoiding peaks and troughs.
In a biomedical signal, 'aliasing' occurs when the sampling frequency is:
Answer: Less than twice the highest frequency component of the signal (below Nyquist rate)
According to the Nyquist-Shannon sampling theorem, if the sampling frequency is less than twice the signal's highest frequency, high-frequency components are misrepresented as lower-frequency artifacts called aliases.
What is the primary advantage of using hydroxyapatite (HA) as a coating on orthopedic implants?
Answer: Its chemical similarity to bone mineral promotes osseointegration and bone bonding
Hydroxyapatite is chemically and structurally similar to the mineral phase of bone, and its use as a coating promotes direct bone apposition and biological fixation (osseointegration) without fibrous tissue interposition.
In a neural prosthetic system, what is 'spike sorting'?
Answer: The process of classifying recorded voltage waveforms to identify action potentials from individual neurons
Spike sorting is a signal-processing step that identifies and classifies action potential waveforms recorded on an electrode to attribute them to individual neurons based on waveform shape and amplitude.