Monitoring COVID-19 Patients Using Cardio-Pulmonary Stethoscope RF Technology: Computer Simulation Study Using CT Scans of Patients

Abstract

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic claimed 3 million lives worldwide in span of a year; the death toll is still on rise as of writing of this article. Hospitals around the globe overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients faced medical resource shortages preventing them from providing services to even severe cases, leaving patients to selfcare. The identified COVID-19 patients had to observe the symptoms escalation or take imaging tests such as CT scans to determine the disease progression. While these imaging methods provide detailed accounts of damage inflicted to lungs by COVID-19, they have their own limitations and risks. In this article, we use computer simulations to examine the possibility of using the Cardio-Pulmonary Stethoscope (CPS) to continually monitor the COVID-19 afflicted lungs. Using a CT scan of a real COVID-19 patient, an infection was introduced in the lungs of an anatomically correct digital human model to be studied using simulation method. The preliminary results of simulations showed that the least detectable size of infection was an ellipsoid of 0.9 cubic cm, and the CPS was most sensitive while detecting infection in the lungs without preexisting conditions like edema. Based on the results and resolution, signal sensitivity of the CPS to COVID-19 infection is established and it can be argued that CPS could be an alternative method for continuous monitoring of COVID-19 disease.

Keywords

• Biomedical measurements
• biomedical monitoring
• mobile measurements
• RF sensors