Bang & Olufsen Technology A/s

Bang & Olufsen Medicom A/s

Torben Naurbo Dalgaard

Niels Toft Jorgensen

Lars Arknaes-Pedersen

Knud Erik Baekgaard

Traditional cuffs for measuring blood pressure use an air chamber enclosed in a non-stretchable fabric to occlude an artery in a limb when supplied with pressurised air. A stethoscope used on the limb is used to monitor blood flow. Application of the cuff is inconvenient and correct placement of the stethoscope chestpiece requires skill. According to the invention blood pressure measurement is facilitated by having the air chamber enclosed in a pre-formed shell-like structure being flexible around the limb and stiff along the limb and by using a linear array of microphones to detect the blood flow noises, the best signal from one of the microphones being automatically selected. Furthermore, the invention provides a facility for correcting the reading in dependence of the amount of wrap of the limb.

Blood pressure measuring device with a cuff of two openable concave shell parts

An apparatus for processing auscultation signals, e.g. embedded in an electronic stethoscope with a digital readout of an estimated heart rate. The apparatus comprises a bias processor for receiving an auscultation signal and providing a biased auscultation signal; said bias processor comprising an envelope detector and an estimator for calculating a signal representative of the beat frequency of the auscultation signal. In one aspect the information in the biased auscultation signal that is in conformity with the repeated information in the auscultation signal is enhanced. This may e.g. be done by calculating the conformity between the biased auscultation and at least a part of the biased auscultation signal. In another aspect of the invention the auscultation signal is biased by means of A-weighing. Preferably the two aspects of the invention are combined.

Method and an apparatus for processing auscultation signals

An electronic stethoscope having a vibration transducer, an amplifier, a headphone arrangement, and at least one digital filter for establishing at least one impulse transfer function corresponding to at least one acoustic stethoscope type. Thus, the signals heard will correspond to those learned, and thereby the advantages of greater amplification and elimination of noise sources may be fully utilized. The ability to compensate for an individual doctor's hearing loss is enabled. Furthermore, with stereoscopic embodiments, sound frequency distributions can be transformed to spatial or temporal sound distributions perceivable by the user facilitating, for example, the detection of heart murmurs and the taking of blood pressure.

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Struer, Denmark

Torben Naurbo Dalgaard