Infection and Drug Resistance (Jul 2022)
Cylindrical Tube Stethoscopes: The Value of Practical Equipment in the Management of Patients with Infectious Diseases
Abstract
Jian Zhu,1,* Chuan-Yang Jiang,2,* Bin Huang,3,* Ji-Min Hu,4 Si-Zhen Fang,5 Ke Huang,1 Yan-Hong Gao,6 Jiao Yu7 1Department of Thoracic Cardiovascular Surgery, General Hospital of Central Theater Command of People’s Liberation Army, Wuhan, 430070, People’s Republic of China; 2College of Mechanical Engineering, Liaoning Petrochemical University, Fushun, 113001, People’s Republic of China; 3The First School of Clinical Medicine, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, 510515, People’s Republic of China; 4Science Technology and Standards Center, Jiangsu Testing and Inspection Institute for Medical Devices, Nanjing, 210019, People’s Republic of China; 5Spectris Instrumentation & Systems Shanghai Ltd. Guangzhou Branch, Guangzhou, 510620, People’s Republic of China; 6Department of Ultrasound, General Hospital of Central Theater Command of People’s Liberation Army, Wuhan, 430070, People’s Republic of China; 7College of Science, Liaoning Petrochemical University, Fushun, 113001, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Jiao Yu, College of Science, Liaoning Petrochemical University, Fushun, 113001, People’s Republic of China, Email [email protected] Yan-Hong Gao, Department of Ultrasound, General Hospital of Central Theater Command of People’s Liberation Army, Wuhan, 430070, People’s Republic of China, Email [email protected]: The COVID-19 pandemic has continued for more than two years since its outbreak. Due to the clinical auscultation needs of doctors when wearing airtight protective clothing, a cylindrical tube stethoscope was proposed to address this problem. However, the idea has been questioned by some experts.Methods: To address these questions, we performed three-part experiments using cylindrical tube stethoscopes. First, we performed laboratory tests to detect the sound intensity from a cylindrical tube stethoscope. Second, we improved the cylindrical tube stethoscope to achieve better results. Third, we revealed the difference in the auscultation effects of the cylindrical tube stethoscope and a conventional professional 3 M stethoscope.Results: From these experiments, we found that a narrow cylindrical tube with a diameter of 4.2 cm and a length of 20 cm equipped with a silicone gasket better auscultation of heart sounds. A cylindrical tube stethoscope and a 3 M stethoscope were used to perform stethoscope tests on 10 volunteers. The alveolar lung sounds were 44.478 decibels vs 49.529 decibels, the heart sounds were 46.631 decibels vs 41.109 decibels, and the intestinal sounds were 40.132 decibels vs 43.787 decibels, respectively.Conclusion: This improved cylindrical tube stethoscope can meet the auscultation requirements for cardiorespiratory and abdominal diagnosis during infectious disease pandemics.Keywords: stethoscope, auscultation, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, acoustic optimization
