Introduction

The invention consists of an instrument for automatic analysis and recognition of pulmonary sounds acquired through an electronic stethoscope. The software / algorithm is able to automatically detect the presence of pathological lung sounds that are strong indicators of serious illnesses such as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and rheumatoid arthritis.

Technical features

The tool consists of a specially developed electronic stethoscope that includes an audio system and a portable consumer device (such as tablets and smartphones) for user interfacing and data processing. The software / algorithm is able to discriminate pathological pulmonary sounds from normal physiological sounds. The instrument is absolutely non-invasive and allows early diagnosis of fibrous lung diseases. The instrument allows to monitor the evolution of the disease by means of a numeric indicator quantifying the severity of the disease just by the analysis of pulmonary sounds.

Possible Applications

• Early diagnosis of fibrous lung diseases.
• Objective assessment of the disease evolution.
• Screening tool for basic doctors.
• Evaluation of drug efficacy in clinical trials.

Advantages

• Noninvasive diagnostic tool for fibrous lung diseases (which could replace invasive diagnosis by computerized tomography).
• Ultra-low cost tool (compared to computer tomography).
• Numerical and objective quantification of the disease evolution.