System and method for acquisition and analysis of physiological auditory signals
First Claim
1. A diagnostic system for use in acquiring, storing and analyzing physiologic sounds during a time interval desired by an operator comprising:
- at least one transducer which detects a set of physiological sound outputs produced by a subject, wherein said at least one transducer is placed around one or more desired anatomic sites on said subject;
means for converting said set of physiologic sound outputs into electrical signals;
means for amplification of said electrical signals;
means for grouping said electrical signals into desired electrical signals and undesired electrical signals by using analogue circuits for high pass and low pass filtering;
means for converting said desired electrical signals back into audio signals so that the operator may listen to a representation of the sound detected by the transducers in real time after amplification and filtering; and
means for converting said desired electrical signals into a stream of digital data that can be received and output by a computer workstation.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A diagnostic system for collecting, processing, recording and analyzing sounds associated with the physiologic activities of various human organs. The system includes a plurality of transducers placed on the body surface at the operator'"'"'s discretion. The microphones are coupled to analogue/digital signal processing circuitry for enhancement of the desired signal and exclusion of ambient noise. An A/D converter digitizes the incoming data and transmits data, which is divided into a multitude of discrete blocks, received over very finite intervals of time, to a computer workstation and moved through an analysis program sequentially. The program is displayed as a series of icons which depict operations that the program performs and which allow the operator to reprogram the system at any time. The data is finally displayed in graphical format and stored in memory as the program processes each block sequentially.
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Citations
32 Claims
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1. A diagnostic system for use in acquiring, storing and analyzing physiologic sounds during a time interval desired by an operator comprising:
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at least one transducer which detects a set of physiological sound outputs produced by a subject, wherein said at least one transducer is placed around one or more desired anatomic sites on said subject;
means for converting said set of physiologic sound outputs into electrical signals;
means for amplification of said electrical signals;
means for grouping said electrical signals into desired electrical signals and undesired electrical signals by using analogue circuits for high pass and low pass filtering;
means for converting said desired electrical signals back into audio signals so that the operator may listen to a representation of the sound detected by the transducers in real time after amplification and filtering; and
means for converting said desired electrical signals into a stream of digital data that can be received and output by a computer workstation. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
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31. A diagnostic system for use in acquiring, storing and analyzing physiologic sounds during a time interval desired by an operator comprising:
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at least one transducer which detects a set of physiological sound outputs produced by a subject, wherein said at least one transducer is placed around one or more desired anatomic sites on said subject;
means for converting said set of physiologic sound outputs into electrical signals;
means for amplification of said electrical signals;
means for grouping said electrical signals into desired electrical signals and undesired electrical signals by using analogue circuits for high pass and low pass filtering;
means for converting said desired electrical signals back into audio signals so that the operator may listen to a representation of the sound detected by the transducers in real time after amplification and filtering; and
,means for converting said desired electrical signals into a stream of digital data that can be received and output by a computer workstation; and
, wherein an amount of time elapsed prior to termination of recording can be determined by selecting a user interactive screen button Stop icon and inputting a desired duration of recording via keyboard.
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32. A diagnostic system for use in acquiring, storing and analyzing physiologic sounds during a time interval desired by an operator comprising:
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at least one transducer which detects a set of physiological sound outputs produced by a subject, wherein said at least one transducer, which may be a condenser microphone with balanced XLR input/output, is placed around one or more desired anatomic sites on said subject;
means for converting said set of physiologic sound outputs into electrical signals;
means for amplification of said electrical signals;
means for grouping said electrical signals into desired electrical signals and undesired electrical signals by using a set of analogue circuitry and digital signal processor settings for high pass and low pass filtering;
means for converting said desired electrical signals back into audio signals so that the operator may listen to a representation of the sound detected by the transducers in real time after amplification and filtering;
means for converting said desired electrical signals into a stream of digital data that can be received and output by a digital signal processor wherein at least one set of operations allow transmittal of physiologic sounds to an operator in a manner which is indistinct in comparison to a conventional acoustic stethoscope from the prospective of said operator;
means for storing said at least one set of operations in digital memory for instantaneous recall by the operator;
means for configuring a set of analogue amplifier, analogue filter and digital signal processor settings to optimize transmission of physiologic sounds from the group consisting of lungs, trachea, heart, heart murmurs, bowels, blood pressure measurements, bruits, and peripheral pulses;
means for correlating the transmitted electronic representations of said physiologic sounds with a set of corresponding representations obtained from an acoustic non-electronic stethoscope; and
,means for configuring said set of analogue circuitry and digital signal processor settings to optimize measurement of functions from the group consisting of blood pressure, trachea/lung sounds, cardiac function and cardiac murmurs;
means for configuring said set of analogue circuitry and digital signal processor settings to optimize assessment peripheral pulses and bowel sounds such as obstruction or ileus;
means for configuring said analogue circuitry and digital signal processor settings to optimize grading the severity of bruits;
means for configuring said analogue circuitry and digital signal processor settings to optimize assessment the functionality/location of foreign bodies within the patient which includes the group consisting of endotracheal tube, feeding tubes, catheters, pacemakers, and central/peripheral lines, shunts and stents.
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Specification