Early Detection of the Cardiac Insufficiency

Abstract

Despite the huge technical progress in the cardiological diagnosis, heart auscultation is still an essential element of the physical study in cardiology. The possibility of hearing the acoustic phenomena produced by the contracting heart and the blood flowing through, enables the initial diagnosis of cardio-vascular pathology, especially cardiac valve defects. Replacing the traditional stethoscope with the electronic device (phonocardiograph) enables filtering noises, strengthening selected frequencies and referring them to the heart cycle. The development of phonocardiography had been suddenly stopped by introducing ultrasonic investigation into the cardiological diagnosis. The application of an innovative transducer (accelerometer) and the possibility of the digital processing of the acoustic signal, allowed to expand the acoustic analysis for the new frequencies (infrasounds). In the signal frequency analysis of the healthy heart, the largest spectrum strength is recorded among the frequencies between 6 to 12 Hz. In the case of damages in the left heart ventricle, the recorded spectrum is changed (the decrease of amplitude and higher frequencies appear).