Abstract
Abstract Stethoscope auscultation is a diagnostic method widely used by medical professionals. With the introduction of digital stethoscopes, auscultation sound analysis has been objectified, which led to an increased interest in the field. Until today, however, no standard to assess the acoustical properties of stethoscopes is available. Some approaches use phantoms mimicking the properties of human soft tissue. In most cases, however, the properties of the phantoms have not been analyzed with respect to environmental variables. In our work, we propose a stethoscope characterization system for the frequency range between 50 Hz and 2.5 kHz with a small financial footprint. We analyzed its frequency behavior over temperature, time and position on the phantom and derived quantitative recommendations for environmental variables. Finally, the frequency response of a commercial digital stethoscope was characterized at different pressure levels. We conclude that the presented system is capable to stably and reproducibly assess the transfer function of digital stethoscopes. We hope that future stethoscope designs will be characterized with respect to their acoustical properties.
Highlights
Auscultation using a stethoscope is practiced by a variety of medical professionals
We present a gelatine-based stethoscope characterization system given in Figure 1 with a small financial footprint
The transfer function of the presented system was symmetric across the diameter of the phantom
Summary
Auscultation using a stethoscope is practiced by a variety of medical professionals. With the introduction of digital stethoscopes which provide better sound quality, can reject ambient noise and are able to record sounds, the analysis of auscultation sounds has been objectified. Only the frequency response of the filtering stages are specified. Their acoustical properties, on the other hand, have a large influence on the characteristics as well, and are oftentimes subject to large variations [2]. There is no established standard to characterize their acoustical frequency response. This problem was already addressed by Ertel et al as early as 1966 [3]. A commercially available, digital stethoscope is characterized under different pressure conditions. We hope to encourage acoustical characterization of newly developed digital stethoscopes and to sensitize for the varying acoustical properties of a gel phantom under different conditions in the validation step.
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