ACOUSTIC DETECTION OF RESPIRATORY CONDITIONS

摘要

Diagnostic techniques are provided to enable the detection of a respiratory condition with a patient's body. The diagnostic techniques compare the acoustic generation and transmission characteristics of the patient's chest and lungs to reference acoustic characteristics and/or predetermined threshold values to determine if an abnormal respiratory condition is present within the patient. The diagnostic techniques process sound waves or vibrations that have interacted with a respiratory condition within a patient and which impinge on the chest wall of the patient. The sound waves or vibrations may be initiated by a speaker (20) that emits sounds waves into the mouth and trachea of the patient (12) or may be indigenous sounds. Alternatively, the sounds waves or vibrations may be initiated using percussive inputs to the chest wall of the patient (12). In processing (38) the sound waves, the diagnostic techniques calculate energy ratios using energy values within high and low frequency bands, signal time delays, and/or dominant frequencies and compare the calculated values to predetermined reference thresholds to generate outputs indicative of the respiratory condition within the patient.