What to do if you can’t even hear yourself? November 30, 2006
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Invention, Medicine.trackback
There are cases when you can’t use your stethoscope due to the noise around you. On the 4th Joint Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America and the Acoustical Society of Japan in Honolulu, Hawaii, they will present a new technique: an ultrasound stethoscope that can be used in loud noise and is capable of making accurate readings at noise levels up to 120 decibels (it sounds as loud as a train horn).
As the scienceblog.com article says, this invention will be used mainly by the army where the critical hour is crucial:
For soldiers wounded in combat, the first hour after sustaining an injury is known as the “critical hour,” when diagnoses and emergency treatment must take place to give them the best chance of recovery
Unfortunately, due to the price, the main market is going to be the army itself.
The ultrasound stethoscopes are almost ready to begin the process of FDA approval, which is likely to take two to three months. Then Active Signal Technologies will begin manufacturing the devices to sell to the armed forces. The company’s chief executive officer, Arthur Cooke, said the commercial release of the stethoscopes will likely be very small at first, since the cost could be anywhere between $250 and $700. He said he hopes positive feedback from the armed forces will generate widespread interest.
Interesting. I assume it won’t help with breath sounds or bowel sounds, but it’s a neat application of ultrasound.
It will help with breath sounds or bowel sounds as it makes sounds much louder. BTW, it needs plenty of developing before starting to use…
You think so? I’m not sure I agree. It uses ultrasound; it is not some sort of sound amplifier. It seems more similar to the way we use Doppler ultrasound to detect movement of fluids, like listening to fetal heart sounds. Did you get a chance to look at the whole article? (emphasis mine)