Listening to a new beat: MP3 players could replace stethoscopes
Last Updated: Monday, September 17, 2007 | 11:33 AM ET
The Canadian Press

It appears teens may not be the only frequent users of MP3 players in the future: Medical professionals may one day swap music players for stethoscopes to listen to and record patients' heartbeats and breathing sounds.
MP3不再是年轻人的专利，医护人员可能将音乐播放器转化成用于记录病人心跳和呼吸的听诊器。

The findings of University of Alberta researchers exploring this possibility were presented Monday at the annual Congress of the European Respiratory Society in Stockholm.

Two Canadian researchers say that MP3 players are better at discerning breathing sounds than traditional stethoscopes.
两名加拿大研究人员说MP3播放器比传统的听诊器更好地辨别人的呼吸声。

Dr. Neil Skjodt, a respirologist, and Bill Hodgetts, an audiologist, have been testing MP3 players with built-in microphones to determine whether they might produce clearer, more recognizable lung sounds.
呼吸科医生Neil Skjodt和听觉病矫治专家Bill Hodgetss一直在测试安装有内置麦克风的MP3播放器是否能提供更清晰的肺部发出的声音。

"The quality, clarity and purity of the loud sounds were better than I have ever heard with a stethoscope," Skjodt said in a release.

Discerning chest or heart sounds through a stethoscope is more of an art than a science. Recent studies have shown that some medical students have to listen to certain clinical sounds up to 500 times to be able to recognize one from the other.

Skjodt tested respiratory specialists in training to see if they had more accurate results with lung sounds recorded on an MP3 player. He said they were better at recognizing common combinations of breath sounds and wheezing using the device, though more subtle sounds were still a problem.
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Skjodt and Hodgetts intend to provide subjects with reference recordings – a library of chest sounds in MP3 format – that helps them learn to differentiate one from another. And the researchers are attempting to determine whether the devices could help doctors listening for heart and bowel sounds as well.
The medical magic of MP3

In an interview, Skjodt said MP3 players offer a variety of options that stethoscopes don't.
MP3播放器可以提供很多听诊器没有的新功能。

Sounds can be recorded and filed for future comparison. MP3 files could also be transmitted over the phone or via the internet, allowing distant experts to help analyze a problem in a remote setting. The devices are inexpensive, and can hold medical podcasts or be used as a recorder for dictating notes.
MP3播放器可以将声音录下来。MP3文件还可以通过电话或互联网传输用于远程治疗。

Frans de Jongh, a respiratory physiologist at the University of Amsterdam's Academic Medical Centre, said there's merit in the idea.

"Yes, there is certainly some utility to explore this," he said from Stockholm, where he is attending the congress. "[But] the difficulty is the interpretation of recorded sounds."

De Jongh said even if the sounds produced by an MP3 player are clearer, humans must still interpret what they mean.