Veterinary Medicine Engineering
Do cephalopods change colour when under distress? How to measure heart rate simultaneously on the three hearts of a oyster? This manuscript introduces and discusses the challenges veterinarians face daily when assessing and treating animals and the opportunities to overcome these challenges utilizing engineering tools. Modern veterinary allied to sustainable engineering will define a new specialty of Biomedical Engineering – Veterinary Medicine Engineering.Keywords— veterinary, biomedical, engineering, holographic modeling, fabric sensors.
Biomedical Engineering is defined as a discipline to advance knowledge in engineering, medicine and biology with applications to all basic life sciences [1]. However, when designing a physiological monitor for veterinary use, the product requirements may change according to the species. The mammalian’s heart, for example, has four chambers, amphibians and reptiles have a three-chambered heart and fish have the simplest heart with only two chambers. The anatomy of the heart implies on thermoregulation characterizing the mammalians in warm-blooded organisms and the reptiles in cold-blooded organisms. The threshold of the resting heart rate also differs between species, with evidence that mammals have an inverse semi-logarithmic relation between heart rate and life expectancy, except for humans [2]. Reptiles have an inconsistent and very low amplitude heart rate, challenging auscultation by standard stethoscopes. A low electric amplitude of their electrocardiogram (ECG) (< 1.0mV) provides poor quality readings leaving veterinarians with Doppler as the best and only device for the reptile’s physical examination [3, 4]. This manuscript presents the challenges and opportunities for a new specialty in Biomedical Engineering – Veterinary Medicine Engineering.
The World’s small Animal Veterinary Association stats that pain management and assessment shall be part of the animal’s assessment during physical examination [19]. However the challenge of assessing animal pain resides in properly monitoring physiological variables that can characterize nociceptive behaviours. Humm and Mellett-Gregory addressed the pain management in small animals through balanced analgesia, however the authors stated that the assessment of pain is a challenge considering dysphoria may be misunderstood as pain-induced behaviour [20]. Gleerup et al. develop a tool to characterize pain based on the expression of horses. The induce pain in equines was characterized as asymmetrical ears, angled appearance of the eyes and tension of lips. The authors conclude the urgent need of development of tool to assess an manage animal pain [21]. The challenge of assessing, characterizing, and managing pain in animals is a 148