Heart screening revolution by visualization of heart murmur using electronic stethoscope

2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K10632
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 58030:Hygiene and public health-related: excluding laboratory approach
• Research Institution: Kindai University
• Principal Investigator: Inamura Noboru 近畿大学, 医学部, 准教授 (20533300)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2022-03-31
• Keywords: 心臓検診 / 無害性雑音 / 先天性心疾患

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Innocent murmur (IM) is an unexplained heart murmur found in healthy children and is found in 70% of children. The purpose of this study is to simplify cardiac auscultation by analyzing IM recorded with an electronic stethoscope. The subjects were 64 IM cases (age 4.3 ± 2.9 years) and 60 cases of congenital heart disease (HM) (age 5.4 ± 4.9 years). The analysis used Adobe Audition 2020 to analyze the sound pressure, duration and frequency of the heart murmur. Unlike HM, IM had many third intercostals, no spread, short duration, low sound pressure, and low frequency. In all the research results, the cutoff value with HM could be calculated. Diagnosis by AI will be possible by repeating AI learning in the future.

Free Research Field

先天性心疾患

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

現代医療において診療録はデジタル化が進んでいるが、 聴診情報は未だに主観的なアナログ情報がメインである。本研究は聴診から得られるデジタル情報量の多さが明らかにした。聴診情報を可視化し診療録に記載すれば、診療録の革命的な変化が期待できる。次に、無害性雑音は小児の7割に認め、小児心臓検診で聴取される最も多い心雑音である。本研究は無害性雑音の特性を解明した。本研究の結果をAI機能に導入すれば、小児循環器専門医が感じる聴診感覚を広く共有でき、無害性雑音の診断にレントゲン、心電図、心エコー検査といった検査が不要となり検診の簡素化、医療費の削減に繋がる。