MONITORING AND ANALYSIS OF HUMAN LUNG SOUND

Abstract

Respiratory illness is recognized internationally as one of the commonest medical disorders affecting the world' populous and is especially a major problem that affects the third world. The World Health Organization (WHO) pursues an extensive health program that is aimed at reducing the plight of respiratory disorders by treatment and education. As with the majority of third world health care programs the effectiveness is limited by the availability of resources and finance. Auscultation is one of the most important noninvasive and feasible methods for the detection of lung diseases. It gives direct information about the structure and function of the lung that cannot be obtained with any other simple and noninvasive method. Systematic changes in breathing sounds with increasing age are of diagnostic importance. Several pathologic changes in the lung, which produce characteristic sounds, can be detected more readily by auscultation than by radiography because of the convenience and availability of the stethoscope. Some lung diseases (e.g., pneumonia) can be recognized by experienced clinicians before a radiographic finding is available. For this reason, it is necessary to learn and understand the "language" of lung sounds. In this work I have identified various waveforms of the normal and adventitious breath sounds using computerized based analysis technique. Samples were collected from various patients suffering from various respiratory disorders like asthma, pneumonia, and cystic fibrosis. Finally, I have analyzed those signals and developed necessary hardware and software for detecting and analyzing lung sound directly as well as remotely.