BackgroundAlthough cardiac auscultation remains important to detect abnormal sounds and murmurs indicative of cardiac pathology, the application of electronic methods remains seldom used in everyday clinical practice. In this report we provide preliminary data showing how the phonocardiogram can be analyzed using color spectrographic techniques and discuss how such information may be of future value for noninvasive cardiac monitoring.MethodsWe digitally recorded the phonocardiogram using a high-speed USB interface and the program Gold Wave http://www.goldwave.com in 55 infants and adults with cardiac structural disease as well as from normal individuals and individuals with innocent murmurs. Color spectrographic analysis of the signal was performed using Spectrogram (Version 16) as a well as custom MATLAB code.ResultsOur preliminary data is presented as a series of seven cases.ConclusionsWe expect the application of spectrographic techniques to phonocardiography to grow substantially as ongoing research demonstrates its utility in various clinical settings. Our evaluation of a simple, low-cost phonocardiographic recording and analysis system to assist in determining the characteristic features of heart murmurs shows promise in helping distinguish innocent systolic murmurs from pathological murmurs in children and is expected to useful in other clinical settings as well.
Although auscultation of the heart remains central in the detection of abnormal heart sounds and murmurs that are frequently indicative of serious cardiac pathology, the application of electronic methods to this end remains rarely used in daily clinical practice. In this report we provide a series of examples showing how the phonocardiogram can be analyzed quantitatively using color spectrographic techniques and discuss how such methods may be of future value for noninvasive cardiac monitoring. Using a sound recording system, we recorded the heart sounds and data acquisition using the program Gold Wave ( http://www.goldwave.com ) to collect data from a high-speed USB interface. Sample color spectrogram analysis of the obtained signals was performed using custom software written in MATLAB. Data was collected from a number of infants and adults with cardiac structural disease as well as from some normal individuals. Our data is presented as a series of 13 cases. We expect the application of spectrographic techniques to phonocardiography to grow substantially as ongoing research and clinical experience demonstrates its utility in various settings. Our evaluation of a simple, low-cost phonocardiographic recording and analysis system to assist in determining the characteristic features of heart murmurs shows promise in helping distinguish normal heart sounds, innocent systolic murmurs and pathological murmurs in children. It expected to be useful in other clinical settings as well.
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