Development of embedded stethoscope for Heart Sound

In India, about 25 percent deaths occurs in the age group of 25 - 69 years because of a cardio-vascular disease [7]. There are numerous diagnostic tests are available that can be used to determine variety of heart disease depending upon risk of heart disease, patient history and the symptoms one might have but the initial diagnose can be done using the stethoscope which is used to hear auscultations. The stethoscope serves as the most frequently employed technique in primary health care especially in rural areas. Sometimes hearing the patient Heart Sound & Murmur which are low amplitude and frequency signal using a stethoscope could lead to the false diagnosis. Also this technique requires lots of expertise and skills which is decreased over the time. The solution of this issue is highly important in early detection of abnormality of heart sound by medical professionals. In this paper, an embedded stethoscope has been designed to serve as a platform for the computer aided diagnosis (CAD) of cardiac sound for the detection of cardiac murmurs. The portable device has ability to hear heart sound in real-time and at the same time display it on TFT LCD Display for visual interpretation. In addition, the heart sound signal can be stored in micro SD card that can be helpful for offline analysis. Critical analysis can be done on the recorded sound signal in time and frequency domain using NI LabVIEW. Software module discloses predominant information about the cardiovascular disorders; hence solve the shortage of specialist doctors and help them in urban as well as rural clinics and hospitals.