An instrument for recording and analysis of heart sounds

Abstract

According to the data of the WHO, heart diseases are the leading diseases with high level mortality rates. In 2019, 17.9 million individuals died due to CVDs, this number is constituting 32 percent of the death rates. For this reason, early diagnosis of heart diseases still maintains its significance today. While the diagnosis of these diseases is made by traditional auscultation methods, advanced technological digital stethoscopes are also used in today’s technology. Thanks to these devices, the auscultated sound can be interpreted automatically, at the same time recorded and listened to again later, and cardiac dysfunction can be detected with advanced classification algorithms. Thus, these systems may prevent misinterpretations and create a crucial benefit for early diagnosis. This thesis aims to develop a portable heart sound acquisition, recording and automatic analysis device. The purpose is to design a system which has a long life with low cost and low power consumption. Proposed instrument enables recording of the amplified and filtered sound with a user friendly interface. At the same time, heart sounds can be listened to directly on the device at the desired volume level with the headphone output thanks to this instrument. The analog data converted to digital is transmitted to both the mobile phone and the computer using Bluetooth Low Energy technology, and the signal can be monitored and analyzed on computer based GUI. User friendly interface shows people’s heart rate and heart rate variability value. In this way, users can have information about their stress levels and heart related issues.