Evaluation of Thoracic Injury in Swine Model with a Noise Immune Stethoscope

Abstract

Auscultation of heart and lung sounds is an important component of casualty triage, and military health care providers rely on this in order to manage an airway and to provide life saving interventions. This study evaluated the feasibility and sensitivity of a newly developed electronic stethoscope concept based on both enhanced acoustic isolation technology and on the application of a Doppler sensor (2 to 3 MHz) insensitive to noise audible to the human ear. The study used seven female Yorkshire swine. In each experiment, the noise immune stethoscope was used in both acoustic and Doppler modes to auscultate heart and lung sounds. Findings with the acoustic mode were more consistent with traditional auscultation when the endotracheal tube was placed within the esophagus and when a pnuemothorax was induced. In contrast, definitive Doppler findings were difficult to elicit and appeared neither sensitive to nor specific of the induced pathology. Overall, the acoustic mode performed well in this study while the Doppler mode was limited in its current diagnostic format.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 01, 2011
Accession Number
ADA541406

Entities

People

  • Alaistair Bushby
  • Eric J. Ansorge
  • Gary Muniz
  • Keith Berry
  • Victoria Reeves

Organizations

  • United States Army Aeromedical Research Lab

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acoustic Detectors
  • Acoustics
  • Crystal Lattice Vibrations
  • Detection
  • Detectors
  • Frequency
  • Health Care
  • Health Services
  • Medical Personnel
  • Military Medicine
  • Physicians
  • Thoracic Injuries
  • Thorax
  • Veins

Readers

  • Acoustics.
  • Computational Modeling and Simulation
  • Trauma or Military Medicine

Technology Areas

  • Microelectronics
  • Microelectronics - Microelectromechanical Systems