Rachel Klemovitch, Assistant Editor03.19.24
Doctors can identify potential disease-related abnormalities in the respiratory system by evaluating sound vibrations produced by the airflow within the lungs and bronchial tree in normal breathing as well as those made by the larynx during vocalizations.
Common respiratory assessments can be subjective and are as good as the quality of the exam. While multipoint electronic stethoscopes have helped in identifying abnormalities in normal breathing, there is still a shortage of technological devices that can help characterize surface vibrations produced by vocalizations.
A team of French researchers in AIP Advances by AIP Publishing, demonstrated the efficacy of ultrasound technology to detect low-amplitude movements produced by vocalizations at the surface of the chest. The team also demonstrated possibly using the “airborne ultrasound surface motion camera” (AUSMC) to map these vibrations in short durations to illustrate their evolution.
“AUSMC is a new imaging technology that allows the observation of the human thorax surface vibrations due to respiratory and cardiac activities at high frame rates of typically 1,000 images per second,” said author Mathieu Couade. “The technology shares the physical principle of conventional ultrasound Doppler imaging, but it does not require a probe to be applied on the skin.”
Researchers tested the AUSMC on 77 healthy volunteers, mapping surface vibrations caused by natural vocalizations to reproduce the “vocal fremitus”—vocalization-induced vibrations on the surface of the body. These are typically analyzed during the physical examination of the thorax. They reported that surface vibrations induced were detectable on all subjects.
“The spatial distribution of vibrational energy was found to be asymmetric to the benefit of the right size of the chest, and frequency-dependent in the anteroposterior axis,” Couade added. “As expected, the frequency distribution of vocalization does not overlap between men and women, with the latter being higher.”
An article of the study was released in AIP Advances.
Clinical trials using the AUSMC are ongoing to identify lung pathologies. Researchers are hopeful that the technology, coupled with AI algorithms, could lead to a new era of thorax examination where vibration patterns can be isolated. This could offer a better window into respiratory health and enable better respiratory disease diagnoses.
Common respiratory assessments can be subjective and are as good as the quality of the exam. While multipoint electronic stethoscopes have helped in identifying abnormalities in normal breathing, there is still a shortage of technological devices that can help characterize surface vibrations produced by vocalizations.
A team of French researchers in AIP Advances by AIP Publishing, demonstrated the efficacy of ultrasound technology to detect low-amplitude movements produced by vocalizations at the surface of the chest. The team also demonstrated possibly using the “airborne ultrasound surface motion camera” (AUSMC) to map these vibrations in short durations to illustrate their evolution.
“AUSMC is a new imaging technology that allows the observation of the human thorax surface vibrations due to respiratory and cardiac activities at high frame rates of typically 1,000 images per second,” said author Mathieu Couade. “The technology shares the physical principle of conventional ultrasound Doppler imaging, but it does not require a probe to be applied on the skin.”
Researchers tested the AUSMC on 77 healthy volunteers, mapping surface vibrations caused by natural vocalizations to reproduce the “vocal fremitus”—vocalization-induced vibrations on the surface of the body. These are typically analyzed during the physical examination of the thorax. They reported that surface vibrations induced were detectable on all subjects.
“The spatial distribution of vibrational energy was found to be asymmetric to the benefit of the right size of the chest, and frequency-dependent in the anteroposterior axis,” Couade added. “As expected, the frequency distribution of vocalization does not overlap between men and women, with the latter being higher.”
An article of the study was released in AIP Advances.
Clinical trials using the AUSMC are ongoing to identify lung pathologies. Researchers are hopeful that the technology, coupled with AI algorithms, could lead to a new era of thorax examination where vibration patterns can be isolated. This could offer a better window into respiratory health and enable better respiratory disease diagnoses.