ACQUISITION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF BOWEL SOUNDS USING LabVIEW SOFTWARE

摘要

Bowel sounds (BSs) are defined as the sounds when contractions of the lower intestines propel forward. It is simple, but empirical and too subjective. Auscultation is the traditional technique for determining gastrointestinal functioning. The most physicians and nurses carry out a cursory listen for BS resulting in misinterpretation. The aim and objective of this project are to design a low-cost prototype of an electronic stethoscope to acquire the BSs and analyzing its characteristics using LabVIEW software. The developed prototype is interfaced with the software, and the BSs are recorded from the epigastric region and the umbilical region. The characteristics of recorded BSs are analyzed in the LabVIEW software with the available tool like signal analysis and sound analysis. For this study, a total number of 17 subjects are included. Around 1min BS recordings are performed on 12 healthy subjects and 5 abnormal subjects. The result showed that the BSs are recorded from the designed prototype. The frequencies of detected BS vary for each person in different areas of the abdomen. Based on the frequency of detected BS for a particular subject, the classification of BS is made into hypoactive, hyperactive and absent (no sounds).