BioMed Central Page 1 of 7 (page number not for citation purposes) BioMedical Engineering OnLine Open Access Book review Bioelectrical signal processing in cardiac and neurological applications and electromyography: physiology, engineering, and noninvasive applications Max E Valentinuzzi* 1,2 Address: 1 Instituto Superior de Investigaciones Biológicas (INSIBIO) Universidad Nacional de Tucumán (UNT), Tucumán, Argentina and 2 Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET) 4000 Tucumán, Argentina Email: Max E Valentinuzzi* - maxvalentinuzzi@arnet.com.ar * Corresponding author Abstract The present article reviews two recent books dealing with rather closely related subjects; in fact, they tend to complement and supplement reciprocally. Obviously, the electromyogram is a bioelectrical signal that often is mathematically manipulated in different ways to better extract its information. Moreover, its correlation with other bioelectric variables may become necessary. Book details Sörnmo Leif, Laguna Pablo: Bioelectrical Signal Processing in Cardiac and Neurological Applications Elsevier Academic Press 30 Corporate Drive, Suite 400, Burlington, MA 01803, USA; 2005. (8 chapters, 2 appendices, 668 pp) ISBN 13: 978-0-12- 437552-9, ISBN 10: 0-12-437552-9Merletti Roberto, Parker Philip: Electromyography: Physiology, Engineering, and Noninva- sive Applications John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Hoboken, New Jer- sey, USA; 2004. (18 chapters, 494 pp) ISBN 0-471-67580-6 Civil Engineering appeared, say, during the Industrial Rev- olution (XVIIIth-XIXth Centuries), even though there are countless previous contributions in hydraulics, mechanics and other areas [1], making use of ingenuity in civilian applications at large, as some kind of counter-face of Mil- itary Engineering. Specializations within the former showed up slowly first (Naval, Mechanical, Electrical) to speed up its diversification in the XXth Century with Tele- communications, Electronics, Computers and several other branches and sub-branches. Biomedical Engineer- ing/Bioengineering emerged in the 1950's as a fascinating interdisciplinary blend, where biology and medicine encompass targets that need to be better understood, in a steady and not easy quantification process. Their signals must be read and interpreted, beyond the limited abilities of the naked eye and the associated human experience [2]. Here is where the field of Biomedical Signal Processing (BSP) takes personality in its own right as interdiscipli- nary indispensable tool, full of ingenious new ideas and concepts. Bioelectrical signals still continue to excite physicians and engineers alike. Processing techniques have helped uncover information which completely changed the way various diseases were previously diagnosed. The aim of the first of these books, as clearly stated by its authors,is to present a comprehensive overview of techniques with particular relevance to the processing of these sig- nals, mainly the electrocardiogram (ECG), the electro- encephalogram (EEG), the electromyogram (EMG) and evoked potentials (EP). Extension to other less com- monly recorded physiological events should not be diffi- cult for the motivated and keen professional. Published: 3 July 2007 BioMedical Engineering OnLine 2007, 6:27 doi:10.1186/1475-925X-6-27 Received: 4 May 2007 Accepted: 3 July 2007 This article is available from: http://www.biomedical-engineering-online.com/content/6/1/27 © 2007 Valentinuzzi; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.