Novel Stethoscope Shows Heart Sounds on Computer

A new "visual stethoscope” reproduces heart sounds as three-dimensional (3D) images on a computer screen. The instrument was introduced at the annual meeting of the American Society of Anesthesiologists in Las Vegas (NV, USA) in October 2004.

Objective evaluation of a patient's condition is difficult when conducted by a single individual, and the results tend to be described too subjectively. Doctors need to be aware of the most subtle variations when dealing with heart sounds in a patient, but conventional stethoscopes do not always give them the information they need, according to Dr. Hiroshi Makino, an anesthesiologist at the Mamamatsu University School of Medicine (Japan), who developed the new stethoscope along with colleagues.

Called VisiStetho, the scope works by visualizing heart sounds as 3D rising and falling waves on a computer screen. When doctors know what healthy waves look like, they can compare their patients' heart sounds to the healthy waves and easily see aberrations by simply looking at a computer screen or printout. The stethoscope also makes it easy to reach a diagnosis through a consensus of several doctors. Currently, the VisiStetho requires that a patient be hooked up simultaneously to a microphone, capnogram, and electrocardiogram, which are fed into a console box and interpreted by computer software. The printout can be attached to the patient's medical record.

"The VisiStetho is a developing tool,” explained Dr. Makino. "But when we can downsize it to, say, the size of a cellular telephone and speed up the diagnosis process, the VisiStetho will be used by doctors worldwide.”


Related Links:
Mamamatsu U.School of Medicine