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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Time-scale segmentation of respiratory sounds.

Respiratory sounds are composed of various events: normal and so-called adventitious sounds. These phenomena present a wide range of characteristics which make difficult their analysis with a single technique. Adapted time-frequency and time-scale techniques allow to fit best, under constraints, the accuracy of analysis of a time segmentation and, by the way, make feasible the study of complex signals. We present here new approaches based only on the wavelet packet decomposition to segment respiratory sounds.

Algorithms↗

The need for standards in recording and analysing respiratory sounds.

Respiratory sounds (RSs) recorded from the chest and trachea are nowadays being electronically analysed by many investigators with a view to (i) determining the mechanisms of their production, and (ii) to develop automated diagnostic systems based on RS analysis, that objectively categorise RS as being associated with health or respiratory diseases. However, one problem that hampers this type of research is that almost every RS investigation team uses different equipment, protocols and analysis methods which, to varying degrees, makes inter-investigator results difficult to compare. The review first discusses the many variables involved in RS recording and analysis, and the different approaches used by different investigators, to highlight this problem and its consequences. Secondly, although the review cannot propose immediately acceptable guidelines and standards for RS analysis, it proposes a 'seed' set of guidelines that are 'up for discussion' between investigators in the field, the final goal being to inject a degree of standardisation in equipment and methods that are acceptable to all involved.

Auscultation↗

Comparison of AR-based algorithms for respiratory sounds classification.

Respiratory sounds of pathological and healthy subjects were analyzed via autoregressive (AR) models with a view to construct a diagnostic aid based on auscultation. Using the AR vectors, two reference libraries, pathological and healthy, were built. Two classifiers, k-nearest neighbour (k-NN) classifier and a quadratic classifier, were designed and compared. Performances of the classifiers were tested for different model orders. The best classification results were obtained for model order 6.

Algorithms↗

Interference cancellation in respiratory sounds via a multiresolution joint time-delay and signal-estimation scheme.

This paper is concerned with the problem of cancellation of heart sounds from the acquired respiratory sounds using a new joint time-delay and signal-estimation (JTDSE) procedure. Multiresolution discrete wavelet transform (DWT) is first applied to decompose the signals into several subbands. To accurately separate the heart sounds from the acquired respiratory sounds, time-delay estimation (TDE) is performed iteratively in each subband using two adaptation mechanisms that minimize the sum of squared errors between these signals. The time delay is updated using a nonlinear adaptation, namely the Levenberg-Marquardt (LM) algorithm, while the function of the other adaptive system-which uses the block fast transversal filter (BFTF)-is to minimize the mean squared error between the outputs of the delay estimator and the adaptive filter. The proposed methodology possesses a number of key benefits such as the incorporation of multiple complementary information at different subbands, robustness in presence of noise, and accuracy in TDE. The scheme is applied to several cases of simulated and actual respiratory sounds under different conditions and the results are compared with those of the standard adaptive filtering. The results showed the promise of the scheme for the TDE and subsequent interference cancellation.

Algorithms↗

Reduced order Kalman filtering for the enhancement of respiratory sounds.

In the processing and analysis of respiratory sounds, heart sounds present the main source of interference. This paper is concerned with the problem of cancellation of the heart sounds using a reduced-order Kalman filter (ROKF). To facilitate the estimation of the respiratory sounds, an autoregressive (AR) model is fitted to heart signal information present in the segments of the acquired signal which are free of respiratory sounds. The state-space equations necessary for the ROKF are then established considering the respiratory sound as a colored additive process in the observation equation. This scheme does not require a time alignment procedure as with the adaptive filtering-based schemes. The scheme is applied to several synthesized signals with different signal-to-interference ratios (SIR) and the results are presented.

Algorithms↗

Measurement of abnormal respiratory sounds during over-ground exercise.

REASONS FOR PERFORMING STUDY: The presence of abnormal respiratory sounds is commonly associated with obstructions of the upper respiratory tract. In order to establish their clinical significance measurements are required of both normal and abnormal respiratory sounds produced by horses exercising over-ground. OBJECTIVES: To determine whether high quality recordings of respiratory sound can be made during over-ground exercise, and to develop a convenient measurement system that can be used to obtain respiratory sounds from horses exercising in field conditions. METHODS: A range of prototypes was evaluated against the requirements that the system must be easy to use under field conditions and produce high-quality recordings of respiratory sound. The chosen design incorporated a miniature microphone and an air-flow direction sensor mounted on a lightweight plastic face mask. The mask was attached to the horse's head using nylon straps secured by velcro fastenings. Sound and flow signals were recorded on a portable minidisc player carried by the jockey. RESULTS: The system fulfilled the design criteria. High quality recordings of respiratory sounds were obtained from Thoroughbred horse exercising on a training gallop under a variety of weather conditions. Intermittently occurring abnormal sounds were readily identified from the data. CONCLUSIONS: High quality measurements of respiratory sounds during over-ground exercise can be made relatively easily. POTENTIAL RELEVANCE: The system enables measurement of respiratory sounds outside a laboratory environment creating new opportunities for scientific research and clinical assessment. The study demonstrated that diagnostic systems based on respiratory sound analysis could potentially be manufactured at relatively low cost and be convenient and simple to use.

Airway Obstruction↗

[Diagnosis of inhalation injury by larynx-tracheal respiratory sound].

The experiment in rabbits demonstrated that the more narrow the tracheas were, the higher the frequency of respiratory sound was. The frequency of tracheal respiratory sound was about 50-100 Hz in normal rabbits. In mildly narrow frequency of respiratory sound was 50-200 Hz, in mediately narrow trachea 200-300Hz, in severely narrow trachea 400-700 Hz. 74 patients were studied. The patients with more severe inhalation injury had higher tone of respiratory sound and simultaneously showed dyspnea because their larynx-tracheas became more narrow due to edema. When high tone appeared obviously tracheostomy must be immediately performed to release obstruction of the respiratory tract. 26 of these patients underwent tracheostomy. This reliable, simple diagnosis can be used to monitor larynx-tracheal condition, and high tone of respiratory sound can be used as an indication for tracheostomy.

Adolescent↗

Spectrum analysis of respiratory sound: application to smokers and non-smokers.

Previous studies have indicated that respiratory sound signals may contain information useful in the detection of lung diseases. In this study, measurement and recordings of respiratory sound signal segments were obtained in normal subjects (non-smokers) and smokers in both inspiration and expiration phases. By using the autoregressive (AR) method, it is possible to produce power spectra of respiratory sound signals in inspiration and expiration phases for smokers and non-smokers of each group. The selection of the AR model order of the respiratory sound signals is achieved using Akaike criterion. The AR model order of 9 is required for completely described respiration sound signal segments in inspiration and expiration phases for both groups. The power spectra in the smoker group show larger distinct peaks at lower frequencies as well as more harmonics in both inspiration and expiration phases compared to the power spectra of the non-smoker group. Another diagnostic indicator was derived from the relative position of poles of the AR model of respiratory sound signals. In all smokers it was found that the first, third and fourth poles were closer to a unit circle than those in non-smokers (P < 0.01). It seems that the use of these indicators may be useful as early diagnostic tool for lung diseases.

Adult↗

Spectrum analysis of respiratory sounds in exercising horses with experimentally induced laryngeal hemiplegia or dorsal displacement of the soft palate.

OBJECTIVE: To record respiratory sounds in exercising horses and determine whether spectrum analysis could be use to identify sounds specific for laryngeal hemiplegia (LH) and dorsal displacement of the soft palate (DDSP). ANIMALS: 5 Standardbred horses. PROCEDURE: Respiratory sounds were recorded and pharyngeal pressure and stride frequency were measured while horses exercised at speeds corresponding to maximum heart rate, before and after induction of LH and DDSP. RESULTS: When airway function was normal, expiratory sounds predominated and lasted throughout exhalation. After induction of LH, expiratory sounds were unaffected; however, all horses produced inspiratory sounds characterized by 3 frequency bands centered at approximately 0.3, 1.6, and 3.8 kHz. After induction of DDSP, inspiratory sounds were unaffected, but a broad-frequency expiratory sound, characterized by rapid periodicity (rattling) was heard throughout expiration. This sound was not consistently detected in all horses. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE: The technique used to record respiratory sounds was well tolerated by the horses, easy, and inexpensive. Spectrum analysis of respiratory sounds from exercising horses after experimental induction of LH or DDSP revealed unique sound patterns. If other conditions causing airway obstruction are also associated with unique sound patterns, spectrum analysis of respiratory sounds may prove to be useful in the diagnosis of airway abnormalities in horses.

Animals↗

Comparison of normal respiratory sounds recorded from the chest and trachea at various respiratory air flow levels.

Respiratory sounds (RS)s were recorded from the trachea and chest of 10 normal adult subjects at respiratory air flow levels of 1.6, 2.1 and 2.6 l/s using an oral flow transducer, and at approximately 2.1 l/s without the flow transducer. Tracheal RS (TRS) and chest RS (CRS) frequency spectra were generated using Fast Fourier Transform, and the peak, mean and maximum frequency parameters were derived from each spectra. Parametric analysis showed: (i) all three parameters for TRS spectra are significantly higher than those for CRS spectra; (ii) TRSs are on average eight times louder than CRSs; (iii) both TRSs and CRSs are air-flow independent over the flow range, though TRSs are significantly modified by the flow transducer while CRSs are not; and (iv) though of similar loudness, inspired and expired RSs (both TRSs and CRSs) have some significant spectral differences. To compare the complex shapes of RS spectra, each spectra was divided into narrow frequency bands (to create a feature set) and principal component analysis was performed on all spectral feature sets. TRSs and CRSs were shown to be independent biological signals with little overlap in their respective spectral characteristics.

Adult↗

Design, construction, and evaluation of a bioacoustic transducer testing (BATT) system for respiratory sounds.

Many different transducers are employed for recording respiratory sounds including accelerometers and microphones in couplers. However, there is no standard lung sound transducer or any device to compare transducers so that measurements from different laboratories can be determined to be of physiologic origin rather than technical artifacts of the transducers. To address this problem, we designed and constructed a prototype of a device that can be used to compare accelerometers, microphones enclosed in couplers, and stethoscopes. The prototype device consists of a rigid chamber containing a loudspeaker that opens to an antechamber covered by a viscoelastic material with mechanical properties similar to human skin and subcutaneous tissue. When driven by a white noise source, we found the sound output at the surface to be useful to comparatively evaluate sensors between 100 and 1200 Hz where lung sounds have most of their spectral energy. We compared the viscoelastic layer to similar thicknesses of fresh meat and fat and found them to produce similar acoustic spectra. This device allows air-coupled transducers, accelerometers, and stethoscopes used in respiratory sounds measurements to be compared under physical conditions similar to their intended use.

Acoustics↗

Two-stage classification of respiratory sound patterns.

The classification problem of respiratory sound signals has been addressed by taking into account their cyclic nature, and a novel hierarchical decision fusion scheme based on the cooperation of classifiers has been developed. Respiratory signals from three different classes are partitioned into segments, which are later joined to form six different phases of the respiration cycle. Multilayer perceptron classifiers classify the parameterized segments from each phase and decision vectors obtained from different phases are combined using a nonlinear decision combination function to form a final decision on each subject. Furthermore a new regularization scheme is applied to the data to stabilize training and consultation.

Algorithms↗

[Value of monitoring of tracheal respiratory sounds in the diagnosis of nocturnal respiratory dysrhythmias].

Twenty-six patients underwent a polysomnigraphic study allowing sleep staging and respiratory events scoring with the use of the oronasal flow, abdominal, thoracic and total displacement (Respitracet), and ear oximetry. Moreover the patients were also equipped with a tracheal microphone giving a power rectified envelope (sonospirogram). Eleven patients showed abnormal respiratory events that were scored by visual lecture using all respiratory parameters (excluding the sonospirogram) and were classified as obstructive central and mixed apneas-hypopneas. Periodic breathing was also appreciated. Detection of the same events was tried with the sonospirogram alone. The sonospirogram could accurately detect snoring and periodic breathing and finally central obstructive mixed apnea (the apneic index being well correlated: p less than 0.001 as well as the mean apnea duration: p less than 0.005). In contrast hypopneic events related to snoring could not be accurately appreciated. We conclude that a sonospirogram may be useful for the detection of abnormal respiratory events when used alone (screening) as when added to other respiratory signals.

Adult↗

Are minidisc recorders adequate for the study of respiratory sounds?

Digital audio tape (DAT) recorders have become the de facto gold standard recording devices for lung sounds. Sound recorded on DAT is compact-disk (CD) quality with adequate sensitivity from below 20 Hz to above 20 KHz. However, DAT recorders have drawbacks. Although small, they are relatively heavy, the recording mechanism is complex and delicate, and finding one desired track out of many is inconvenient. A more recent development in portable recording devices is the minidisc (MD) recorder. These recorders are widely available, inexpensive, small and light, rugged, mechanically simple, and record digital data in tracks that may be named and accessed directly. Minidiscs hold as much recorded sound as a compact disk but in about 1/5 of the recordable area. The data compression is achieved by use of a technique known as adaptive transform acoustic coding for minidisc (ATRAC). This coding technique makes decisions about what components of the sound would not be heard by a human listener and discards the digital information that represents these sounds. Most of this compression takes place on sounds above 5.5 KHz. As the intended use of these recorders is the storage and reproduction of music, it is unknown whether ATRAC will discard or distort significant portions of typical lung sound signals. We determined the suitability of MD recorders for respiratory sound research by comparing a variety of normal and pathologic lung sounds that were digitized directly into a computer and also after recording by a DAT recorder and 2 different MD recorders (Sharp and Sony). We found that the frequency spectra and waveforms of respiratory sounds were not distorted in any important way by recording on the two MD recorders tested.

Algorithms↗

Method for respiratory sound analysis.

A system is described for the analysis of respiratory sounds by means of a dual-channel sound envelope detector and a real-time spectrum analyzer. A three-dimensional spectral analyzer display for frequency, amplitude, and time has been utilized. Respiratory sounds have been observed with intensities up to 0.5 N/m2 and with normal frequencies in the range of 0 to 1.5 kHz. This system can extract useful information from the sounds of respiration, information which is not available by conventional auscultation.

Auscultation↗

Respiratory sounds recorded by radio-stethoscope from normal horses at exercise.

A graphic representation is presented of respiratory sounds recorded by a radio-stethoscope from normal horses exercised at the walk, trot, canter and gallop. Methods whereby inspiratory and expiratory sounds were distinguished are discussed. The form of amplitude envelopes of the sounds recorded at different gaits are compared. Certain measurements of relative amplitudes and the form of amplitude envelopes of the recorded respiratory sounds can be recognised as typical of normal horses when exercised at the canter and gallop. The influence of some physiological events (e.g. deglutition on the rhythm of normal respiration at the canter and gallop) is indicated.

Animals↗