Enhanced Resolution Stethoscope

Enhanced Resolution Stethoscope

This non-invasive medical device allows listening to the sounds produced by human cardiovascular circulation system that are not available to traditional methods.

This device stretches sounds in time, allowing human ear and brain to recognize fine details that otherwise could not be heard. The resulting sounds become more structured and provide more information about their source.

New Heart Sound Examples

Below are two tables. They are organized as follows. Audio record in the top left cell is the sound as it could be heard by any traditional stethoscope. Lets call this record I1Z1 (Info x1, Zoom x1). It is a classical heart sound we are familiar with. As it should be, we can hear two distinct sounds:

• S1 sound that is produced by two closing valves: mitral and tricuspid. In both subjects, traditional stethoscope does not show the split of S1 into M1 and T1 sounds. It was believed that this is because the mitral and tricuspid valves are closing simultaneously.
• S2 sound, produced by aortic and pulmonary valves closure. When they split, they are called A2 and P2 respectively. As it is with the S1 sound, S2 sound is not split into two sounds for both subjects.

Lets now go one cell down, to I4Z1 (Info x4, Zoom x1). It is the same physical raw file as for the I1Z1 record, but now played with some infrasound information enabled. This increases the amount of information delivered into the audio speakers about 4 times. The playback is performed at the original speed (Zoom=1). That is why we call this record I4Z1.

Further down cell I8Z1 has almost all infrasound info enabled. This increases amount of information carried by the audible signal about 8 times. Now S1 becomes clearly more sophisticated structured sound, but it details are not easy to recognize.

Cell I8Z2 now has both M1 and T1 sounds clearly separated. New fixed-tone sounds in between and especially during diastole now also can be heard.

Audio examples below require stereo playback system to evaluate distribution of sound sources in space.

Subject 1. Healthy fit adult female:

Subject 2. Healthy fit adult male:

Device Physical Dimensions

The device mechanically and electrically closely reassembles traditional digital stethoscopes. It has passive non-invasive mechanical sensors that transform sounds into electrical signals and does not emit any energy into the human tissues.