A New Approach to Cardiopulmonary Diagnosis
Mark
Ballora
Ary L.
Goldberger
Bruce
Pennycook
Plamen Ch.
Ivanov
Leon
Glass
School
of
Music
Beth Israel
Deaconess
Medical Center
Vice Principal
Information Systems
& Technology
Center for
Polymer Studies
and Dept.
of Physics
Department
of
Physiology
Pennsylvania
State
University
Harvard
Medical School
McGill
University
Boston
University
McGill
University
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Ever since 1819, when Theophile Laennec first put a block of wood to a patient's chest to listen to her heartbeat, physicians have relied on auscultation to help diagnose cardiopulmonary disorders.
Here we propose a novel diagnostic method based in music technology. Digital music software is employed to transform the sequence of intervals between consecutive heartbeats into an electroacoustic soundtrack. The results show promise as a diagnostic tool and also provide the basis of an interesting musical soundscape. This site details the methods used to sonify the heart rate variability time series. Audio examples are provided that correspond to four cardiac states: healthy, congestive heart failure, atrial fibrillation and obstructive sleep apnea. The software used to create the sonifications may be downloaded so that users may experiment with different "mixes" of sound parameters. Although Laennec was not the first to listen to the human heart, his signal contribution was learning how to interpret its sounds in terms of underlying pathology. Computer methods now enable us to generate new ways of listening to the heart, but we are still at the early stages of learning how to interpret the resulting sonifications.
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Financial support was contributed by the Natural Sciences Engineering and Research Council, the National Institutes of Health/National Center for Research Resources (P41RR13622), the G. Harold and Leila Y. Mathers Charitable Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Aging (AG08812). See also: |
