Microelectrodes in medicine

Abstract

The chief applications of microelectrodes in medicine are in experimental studies of tissue and cell behaviour and of metabolism. Microprobes have been developed for a wide range of specific substrates and for the detection of bioelectric potentials. They have provided information that now forms the basis of much of our understanding of biological phenomena. Their inherent characteristics, such as fragility and ‘drift’, render them unsuitable for general clinical application except at the surface of organs. The heterogeneity of tissues makes it necessary to specify the exact anatomical location of microelectrode measurements and the probes themselves must be of a form that neither distorts, damages, nor stimulates reactions from, the cells or blood vessels with which they are in contact.