A low-cost, high-fidelity fm wireless precordial radiostethoscope for continuous monitoring of heart and breath sounds

Abstract

We constructed and tested an inexpensive (less than $50) FM wireless, acoustically shielded, precordial radiostethoscope that enables the anesthetist to follow the heart tones and breath sounds of the patient regardless of the anesthetist's location in the operating room. We compared our acoustically shielded device with a similar, but acoustically unshielded, commercially available device. We found the sound quality of our radiostethoscope to be superior to that of the commercial device; the signal-to-noise ratio of our device was 7.6 for heart tones and 8.4 for breath sounds, whereas the commercial device had a signal-to-noise ratio of 2.7 and 3.9 for heart tones and breath sounds, respectively. Our device offers all of the advantages of a radiostethoscope and has the added advantages of low cost and high fidelity.