To go into deeper details of theoretical bases and physical principles about diagnostic and therapeutical techniques like ECG, tomography and radio/hadron-therapy.
Course Prerequisites
In the topics described below and illustrated in the course, a basic knowledge of physics acquired through the fist year "Medical Physics" course, is needed.
Teaching Methods
In presence lectures, supported by seminars (seminari didattici).
Assessment Methods
For ADE, a final exam is not planned. Lectures must be followed to get the ADE registration.
Texts
D. Scannicchio, FISICA BIOMEDICA, EDISES (textbook used for the course of Medical Physics, Fisica Medica) + some other teaching materials given directly to the students.
Contents
In the first part, the links among the propagation of action potentials in cardiac muscle fibers and the electrocardiographic traces. In particular, dipole and dipole-layer models are introduced, with the aim of interpreting the traces produced by frontal and precordial derivation of ECG. Some technical details about the registration of cardiac traces are also recalled. In the second part, some complex phenomena of radiation absorption in biological matter are presented, with particular regard to the advantages of using protons and ions (hadrons) in tumor therapy. For this techcnique we'll refer to the national center of oncologivcal hadron therapy CNAO, located in Pavia. In successive lectures, the mathematical methods of tomographic images reconstruction are briefly recalled. Then the physical principles of different tomographic techniques are described.: x-rays Computed Tomography (x-CT), single photon emission tomography (SPECT), positron emission tomography (PET), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
Course Language
Italian
More information
Reception by appointment. For information , please write to : alessandro.lascialfari@unipv.it
