Pacemaker
Team members:
- Min Dong Bian
- Ryan Laterza
- Sarah Makhija
- Luke Phillips
Team Pacemaker is working with mechanical and software engineering students to design and implement an apparatus for analyzing heart sounds. The approach to the production of the device is based on methods developed by Howard D. Weinberger, MD, Co-Director of Cardiac Imaging at the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center.
The process begins with the simultaneous acquisition of acoustic data, by means of a microphone-affixed stethoscope, and traditional electrocardiogram (ECG) signals. Fast Fourier transformed and signal averaged data are then displayed on the LCD screen of a handheld device which also displays relevant patient information.
This relatively compact piece of equipment also acts as a user interface, providing basic functions such as on/off, and keypad data entry. Identification and cardiac data are stored on a portable memory card, for future computer assisted analysis of digitized heart sounds. The developed software system will decode and graphically represent heart function as averaged over the 20 second time period in which heartbeats were recorded. A visual depiction of cardiac acoustics will aid in a doctor's objective diagnosis of certain heart disease related abnormalities such as heart murmurs.