Hall effect transducer for apexcardiography and sphygmography.
Recording of mechanograms (Recording of mechanical activity of internal organs and vessels, often non-invasively eg. apex cardiogram) can be performed by applying different kinds of mechano-electric transducers. In this paper the idea and construction of a new transducer with Hall-generator are presented. This transducer is self-adjusting in the range of its linear characteristics, and exerts practically constant touching pressure independent of the configuration of the patients thorax. This facilitates the measuring process and allows for calibration of the obtained records. The sensitivity of the transducer is 250 mV/mm, frequency bandwidth 0-45 Hz and it has a linearity of +/- 1.5% in the range of displacements +/- 1.5 mm. The transducer also generates the signal of the first derivative of the investigated vibrations. Assessment of the transducer was carried out in a cardiology clinic on 27 patients with a normal heart and with different kind and degree of heart damage. The mechanograms obtained from different transducers for each patient were compared in respect of the essential time intervals and morphological elements. The comparison shows a good detecting capability, correctness and reproducibility of the data obtained by means of the Hall-effect transducer. Some recordings of mechanograms (apexcardiograms and different kinds of pulse) from patients with normal heart, valvular aortic stenosis and atrial heart defect are shown and discussed in the paper.