Seismocardiography: Past, present and future

Abstract

This paper presents an overview of seismocardiography (SCG) as a noninvasive cardiology method. The paper represents a brief historical background to the SCG, an assessment of the technology at present, and an evaluation of the challenges we must address. These challenges include the development and clarification of definitions, standards, and annotations.

Noninvasive Monitoring of Cardiac Preload and Contractility by Heart Beat-Derived Mechanical Vibration on the Chest Wall in Guinea Pigs

“…5 Ballistocardiography signals represent movements of the whole body in response to cardiac ejection of blood into the vasculature, 5,12,13 and SCG corresponds to local vibrations of the chest wall associated with the heartbeat, blood flow, respiration, body movements, and so on. [5][6][7] SCG is recorded from the surface of the body using accelerometers, and contains waves corresponding to atrial and ventricular contraction, LV filling, closing and opening of the atrioventricular and semilunar valves, and maximal acceleration in the aorta. [5][6][7] The shapes of these waves provide information about the functional status of the heart, and therefore, many studies have used SCG to determine LV systolic and diastolic function, myocardial contractility, or to detect ischemia.…”

“…[5][6][7] SCG is recorded from the surface of the body using accelerometers, and contains waves corresponding to atrial and ventricular contraction, LV filling, closing and opening of the atrioventricular and semilunar valves, and maximal acceleration in the aorta. [5][6][7] The shapes of these waves provide information about the functional status of the heart, and therefore, many studies have used SCG to determine LV systolic and diastolic function, myocardial contractility, or to detect ischemia. [5][6][7][14][15][16][17][18] In the present study, the mechanical vibration signals were detected simply by placing the animals on the piezoelectric sensor, and therefore, CVS depended on the contact pressure of the sensor and reflects the force perpendicular to the chest wall.…”

“…[5][6][7] The shapes of these waves provide information about the functional status of the heart, and therefore, many studies have used SCG to determine LV systolic and diastolic function, myocardial contractility, or to detect ischemia. [5][6][7][14][15][16][17][18] In the present study, the mechanical vibration signals were detected simply by placing the animals on the piezoelectric sensor, and therefore, CVS depended on the contact pressure of the sensor and reflects the force perpendicular to the chest wall. We consider that CVS might be a valid substitute for one axis of accelerometers to monitor the SCG signal.…”

“…In contrast, SCG studies are usually performed in humans in the supine position. [5][6][7] The size of the sensor relative to the body is larger in our study than in most SCG studies. Also, the CVS waveforms were very sensitive to the position of the sensor; therefore, fine adjustment of the sensor position was required to obtain reliable CVS amplitudes.…”

“…The accelerometer measures mechanical vibrations that are generated by heart movement and transmitted to the chest wall, and the device is used to determine left ventricular (LV) systolic and diastolic function, myocardial contractility, or ischemia. [5][6][7] The piezoelectric transducer that is part of the accelerometer is useful for detecting cardiac and/or breathing movements when the sensor is placed under the body of small animals or humans. [8][9][10][11] The measurement is achieved by simply placing animals on the piezoelectric sensor and using an ideal high-pass filter to isolate heart sounds from the raw piezoelectric sensor signals.…”