By Sharin Hussain via SWNS
Ultrasound could be used to detect breathing diseases, according to a new study.
French researchers found that using ultrasound technology may lead to diagnosing respiratory diseases.
The team discovered that the device can be used to detect low-amplitude movements produced by speech at the surface of the chest.
The thorax is the part of the body between the neck and abdomen, providing medical professionals with a window into a patient’s respiratory health.
Study author Dr. Mathieu Couade, Chief Scientific Officer at Austral DX, said: “Airborne ultrasound surface motion camera (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.
“The technology shares the physical principle of conventional ultrasound Doppler imaging, but it does not require a probe to be applied on the skin.”
The study, published in the journal AIP Publishing, evaluates sound vibrations produced by the airflow induced within the lungs and bronchial tree during normal breathing as well as those produced by the larynx, the hollow tube in the middle of your neck, during speech.
The French researchers also demonstrated the possibility of using AUSMC to map vibrations during short durations so as to illustrate their evolution.
Doctors can identify potential disease-related abnormalities within the respiratory system.
Common respiratory assessments can be subjective and are only as good as the quality of the exam.
While the use of multipoint electronic stethoscopes has helped in identifying abnormalities during normal breathing, there remains a lack of technological devices that can help characterize surface vibrations produced by vocalizations.
The researchers tested the AUSMC on 77 healthy volunteers to image the surface vibrations caused by natural vocalizations with the aim of reproducing the vocal fremitus, a vibration transmitted through the body.
This is the part that is typically analyzed during physical examination of the thorax.
They reported that induced surface vibrations were detectable on all subjects.
Dr. Couade concludes: “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.
“As expected, the frequency distribution of vocalization does not overlap between men and women, with the latter being higher.”
The researchers are hopeful that the technology, coupled with artificial intelligence algorithms, could open up a new era of thorax examination. This would offer a much better window on respiratory health and enable better diagnoses of respiratory diseases.
