Carotid Auscultation for Vessel Status Monitoring

Untreated cardio-vascular diseases like plaque deposition, distention or stenosis of the carotid artery can in worst cases cause brain damage or lead to death of the patient. Current examination methods are either subjective (auscultation with a stethoscope), require specific hardware (ultrasound, phonocardiography for example) and are dependent on the experience of the physician. However, experienced clinicians can hear the flow of blood e.g. in the carotid arteries and identify tiny blood flow dynamical changes. Since it is possible to hear these changes, it should also be possible to measure and quantify them over a period of time.
We propose a wearable auscultation device for time-varying characterization of carotid sounds for long-term changes in the vessel status. Acoustic signals are measured using integrated audio sensors and transferred wirelessly to a smart phone for visualization and evaluation. Features are extracted from the audio signal with help of sophisticated processing approaches (modal analysis, Cyclostationarity, Wavelet, parametrical modelling) and used for creation of personal auscultation profiles. The profiles are later on used for long-term examination of the vessel status and the early detection and monitoring of vascular conditions.