The CNR Clinical Physiology Institute (CNR), will be the unit participating in SensorART
project. CNR carries out research activities in the field of cardiopulmonary and metabolic diseases.
The presence, within the same environment of hospital units (wards, Coronary Care Unit,
Catheterization Laboratory, Operating Room, and Out-patients), animal labs, technical departments,
and advanced diagnostic instrumentation (Nuclear Medicine, Positron Emission Tomography, MRI,
CTA) allows an integrated and multidisciplinary approach to medical and health research. Research
is organized in 4 disciplinary sections: 1) Clinical and experimental medicine; 2) Molecular
medicine, clinical biology and biochemistry; 3) Technosciences for medical applications and
research; 4) Epidemiology and health service organization.

The Clinical and Experimental Medicine research area is dedicated to the study of coronary blood
flow, cardiac metabolism, cardiovascular neural control, myocardial function and its integrated
relationship with transmural perfusion. In the eighties CNR was assigned the leadership of the
project “Breakdown in human adaptation to stress”, and in the nineties the participation to the
Concerted Action on Heart Assist and Replacement (BIOMED I). Today CNR is one of the five
centres of CARE-MAN (NMP4-CT-2006-017333, FP6) for the evaluation of the precision of the
routine laboratory methods.

In the field of heart failure, the multidisciplinary competences allowed the participation to national
studies: as Research Unit of the Italian Strategic Project Heart Failure (1998-2000), Operational
Unit in Care-HF (Multicenter Resynchronization Study), Coordination Centre in MASC
"Ambulatory monitoring in Heart Failure" with evaluation of Quality of Life and Personality Traits;
contributor to RICAF (Italian Registry of genetic dilatative cardiomiopathies). The research spreads
out from revascularization procedures in patients with heart failure to the role of coronary
microvascular disease in the genesis of heart failure, by Positron Emission Tomography and/or
nuclear medicine studies, as well as to neurocardiology, natriuretic peptides, thyroid-heart
relationship, detection of lung water content by echocardiography, physical training, with the
publication of numerous papers in peer review international journals.

Within CNR, the Bioengineering and Medical Informatics (BIM) Unit operating in the research area
of techno-sciences for biomedicine, has the specific role of integrating multimodal and multiscale
information, from molecular level up to patient medical data. The professional background and
expertise of BIM research team cover: a) Clinical data management (data acquisition, archiving,
processing and distribution, patient medical record, personal devices for ubiquitous monitoring and
computing, data fusion, knowledge extraction, medical decision support), b) Bio-signal analysis
with multimodal and multivariate approach (mathematical modelling, pattern recognition, nonlinear
dynamics, time-frequency analysis, blind source separation). The BIM group has a history of strong
involvement in many national and international activities, such as: international initiatives in
medical informatics within the “Computers in Cardiology” association and the European Society of
Cardiology; implementation and management of the “European ST-T ECG Data Base”, currently a
world reference for the development and validation of dynamic ECG instrumentation; participation
to EC programs in the areas BIOMED, AIM (KISS, TANIT), CEN/TC 251, IST; cooperation with
national and international industries in projects of development and standardization of biomedical
instrumentation; management of large clinical databases (IMAGE archive for ischemic heart
diseases, from 1973).

Furthermore, by the acquired competence in Regulatory Affairs for the validation procedures of
physical and chemical sensors and non invasive devices, the experimental group became in the
Institute the reference group for sensor studies and applications also in man in different diseases. In
particular, starting from the research projects on myocardial neuropsychic risk factors and
autonomic drive in myocardial infarction, together with the duties and the experience on care and
interventional cardiology of patients, in the field of basic research and human physiology, they
developed the know-how of a multiparametric approach to the investigation of the heart-brain
relationship as well as the evaluation of homeostasis and cardiovascular functions.