Evaluation of reproduction fidelity of acoustic characteristics of auscultation sounds by recordings included in various publicly available databases

Abstract

Various databases of auscultation sounds recordings are available for teaching purposes for physicians. The sounds included in these databases were recorded using different equipment, and—in some cases—generated artificially. Thus, an important question arises regarding the differences in acoustic parameters between the recordings of bioacoustic signals obtained using different techniques and hardware, and the sounds heard by a physician during an actual patient auscultation through a typical acoustic stethoscope. The acoustic stethoscopes are the most widespread diagnostic devices and are far more popular in clinical practice than the electronic ones. The present study introduces the results of an analysis of acoustic characteristics of sounds included in various databases, compared to the parameters of sounds recorded with a microphone placed in an earpiece of an acoustic stethoscope. It is shown that the differences in time- and frequency characteristics are large enough to question the legitimacy of using various databases for teaching purposes. An alternative method and setup for recording bioacousic signals that could be used for developing auscultation skills is introduced.Various databases of auscultation sounds recordings are available for teaching purposes for physicians. The sounds included in these databases were recorded using different equipment, and—in some cases—generated artificially. Thus, an important question arises regarding the differences in acoustic parameters between the recordings of bioacoustic signals obtained using different techniques and hardware, and the sounds heard by a physician during an actual patient auscultation through a typical acoustic stethoscope. The acoustic stethoscopes are the most widespread diagnostic devices and are far more popular in clinical practice than the electronic ones. The present study introduces the results of an analysis of acoustic characteristics of sounds included in various databases, compared to the parameters of sounds recorded with a microphone placed in an earpiece of an acoustic stethoscope. It is shown that the differences in time- and frequency characteristics are large enough to question the legitimacy of u...