Stethoscope having a body contact piece provided with two alternatively

Abstract

A double-headed body contact piece has first and second acoustic connector portions connected to first and second acoustic passages of a stethoscope-tube attachment, and further has a first, non-differential auscultation head with a single auscultation chamber and a second, differential-auscultation head with a pair of chambers which latter are to be placed simultaneously with each other against a patient's body with a predetermined spacing between them. A switchover mechanism has first and second settings, involving registration and non-registration of various passages internal to the body contact piece. In the first setting, acoustic connections are established leading from the single chamber of the first head to both the first and the second acoustic connector portions, these two connections being of at least equivalent geometry and having the same dimensions so as to be acoustically equivalent to each other. In the second setting, one acoustic connection is established leading from one chamber of the second head to one of the acoustic connector portions, and another connection is established leading from the second head's other chamber to the other acoustic connector portion, these two connections likewise being of at least equivalent geometry and having the same dimensions so as to be acoustically equivalent to each other. In the first setting, the physician uses the first head and hears identical body sounds in his two earpieces. In the second setting, he uses the second head and hears in his two earpieces body sounds as picked up by one and by the other of the second head's two chamber, for differential auscultation.