Blind source extraction of heart sound signals from lung sound recordings exploiting periodicity of the heart sound

A novel approach for separating heart sound signals (HSSs) from lung sound recordings is presented. The approach is based on blind source extraction (BSE) with second-order statistics (SOS), which exploits the quasi-periodicity of the HSSs. The method is evaluated on both synthetic periodic signals of known period mixed with temporally white Gaussian noise (WGN) as well as on real quasi periodic HSSs mixed with lung sound signals (LSSs). Qualitative evaluation involving comparison of the power spectral densities (PSDs) of the extracted signals, by the proposed method and by the JADE algorithm, and that of the original signal is performed for the case of real data. Separation results confirm the utility of the proposed approach, although departure from strict periodicity may impact performance

Modulation filtering for heart and lung sound separation from breath sound recordings

Abstract — Separation of heart and lung sounds from breath sound recordings is a challenging task due to the temporal and spectral overlap of the two signals. In this paper, the use of a spectro-temporal representation to improve signal separation is investigated. The representation is obtained by means of a frequency decomposition (termed modulation frequency) of temporal trajectories of short-term spectral components. Exper-iments described herein suggest that improved separability of heart (HS) and lung sounds (LS) is attained in the modulation frequency domain. Bandpass and bandstop modulation filters are designed to separate HS and LS signals from breath sound recordings, respectively. Visual and auditory inspection, quantitative analysis, as well as algorithm execution time are used to assess algorithm performance. Log-spectral distances below 1 dB corroborate our listening test which found no audible artifacts in separated heart and lung sound signals. Index Terms: Spectro-temporal processing, modulation fil-tering, modulation spectrum, heart sounds, lung sounds

Респіраторна акустика та її клінічна інтерпретація в педіатрії

На сьогодні респіраторна акустика – це сформований науковий напрямок, основними завданнями якого є розробка теорії розповсюдження і генерації звуку в легенях та створення інформативних акустичних методів діагностики легеневих захворювань. В області респіраторної акустики опубліковано багато робіт, але зовсім недостатньо робіт з педіатричних позицій. Тому конкретизація окремих питань, на наш погляд, буде цінним матеріалом для трактовки різноманітних легеневих звуків у пульмонологічній практиці педіатра. Фізіологічні пояснення аускультативних явищ до цього часу представляли собою важко розв’язувану проблему. Зміна структури та перебігу захворювань органів дихання у дітей в сучасних умовах вимагає перегляду існуючих трактувань аускультативної симптоматики та їх інтерпретації. Базуючись на аускультативних даних, лікар-педіатр, в першу чергу, складає для себе алгоритм інтерпретації звукових явищ, а потім аналізує їх зв’язок з тим чи іншим патологічним процессом, клінічними та інструментальними даними. Формулювання діагнозу прямо пов’язано з аускультативним феноменом, який лікар має визначити та відобразити в діагнозі. Колектив авторів має надію, що приведені в монографії матеріли допоможуть практикуючим лікарям визначитись в правильному формулюванні звукових явищ, одержаних при аускультації дітей з патологією дихальної системи

Characterization, Classification, and Genesis of Seismocardiographic Signals

Seismocardiographic (SCG) signals are the acoustic and vibration induced by cardiac activity measured non-invasively at the chest surface. These signals may offer a method for diagnosing and monitoring heart function. Successful classification of SCG signals in health and disease depends on accurate signal characterization and feature extraction. In this study, SCG signal features were extracted in the time, frequency, and time-frequency domains. Different methods for estimating time-frequency features of SCG were investigated. Results suggested that the polynomial chirplet transform outperformed wavelet and short time Fourier transforms. Many factors may contribute to increasing intrasubject SCG variability including subject posture and respiratory phase. In this study, the effect of respiration on SCG signal variability was investigated. Results suggested that SCG waveforms can vary with lung volume, respiratory flow direction, or a combination of these criteria. SCG events were classified into groups belonging to these different respiration phases using classifiers, including artificial neural networks, support vector machines, and random forest. Categorizing SCG events into different groups containing similar events allows more accurate estimation of SCG features. SCG feature points were also identified from simultaneous measurements of SCG and other well-known physiologic signals including electrocardiography, phonocardiography, and echocardiography. Future work may use this information to get more insights into the genesis of SCG

Propostas de técnicas para caracterização e classificação automática de sons pulmonares adventícios

In this thesis, the investigation of methods to characterize and classify adventitious lung sounds by spectral analysis is described. To accomplish this task, two novel techniques were developed, through Multiressolution Analysis, based on the Discrte Wavelet Transform. The first technique aims to detect abnormal sounds and classity them info four groups: normal, continuous and discontinuous adventitions lung sounds, also notifying their simultaneous occurence. During its processing, the respiratory cycle signal is decomposed up to its tenth level, and the energy present in the detail and approximation coefficients for each decomposition level is calculated, resulting on a curve of energy versus decomposition level. The resulting curves show different signatures for each kind of adventitious sound. These signatures are used as data source for a classifier system based on Radial Basis Function Artificial Neural Networks. This technique was tested for ten different wavelets, training a hundred neural networks for each wavelet, totalizing a thousand neural networks trained. The best performance rates for each wavelet reach values from 88% to 92.36% for the test group, in a set of 275 respiratory cycles. In the second technique, named Filtering by Selective Spectral Analysis, the lung sound is decomposed until its fourth level, the approximation coefficients spectra are calculatedand, based on the highest frequency component found on those coefficients, a multiband FIR filter is determined. This filter is used to eliminate all frequency components in the approximation coefficients except the highest one. After the filtering procedure, the signal is recomposed by wavelet reconstruction. In order to evaluate the proposed technique, ten wavelets were used in the decomposition and reconstruction stages. The wavelet which presented the best performance attenuated heart sounds 6 dB more than the adventitious sounds that occur in the same spectral band. For measuring this attenuation, the Power Spectral Density was used. This procedure showed satisfactory results, elimination the normal airflow noise and cardiac sounds, leaving only the adventitious sounds in the recorded lung sounds.Nesta tese, descrevem-se técnicas matemáticas visando a caracterização e classificação de sons pulmonares adventícios, por meio de sua análise espectral. Para alcançar este objetivo, desenvolveu-se duas novas metodologias, que utilizam Análise em Multiresolução, implementada a partir da Transformada Wavelet Discreta. A primeira metodologia desenvolvida é utilizada para classificar automaticamente os sons pulmonares em quatro grupos: sons normais e sons adventícios contínuos e descontínuos, notificando também o caso de ocorrência das duas anomalias no mesmo ciclo respiratório. Durante o processamento, o ciclo respiratório é decomposto até seu décimo nível, calculando a energia dos coeficientes detalhe em cada nível de decomposição, assim como a energia dos coeficientes de aproximação. Deste cálculo, obtém-se uma curva de variação da energia em relação ao nível de decomposição, sendo que as curvas obtidas se mostraram curvas caracterísitcas em relação ao tipo de som adventício. Tais curvas são aplicadas a uma simulação de Rede Neural Artificial de Função de Base Radial, que atua como classificador entre os quatro grupos. Esta técnica foi testada utilizando dez wavelets, sendo treinadas cem redes neurais para cada uma. Os melhores resultados apresentaram índice de acerto entre 88% e 92,36% para o conjunto de teste, em um total de 275 ciclos respiratórios. A segunda metodologia, denominada Filtragem por Análise Espectral Seletiva, decompõe o som pulmonar até seu quarto nível, calculando o espectro dos coeficientes aproximação e, baseado na componente de frequência prepoderante, calcula um filtro FIR multibanda. Este filtro é utilizado para eliminar todas as {sic} componentes espectrais dos coeficientes de aproximação, com exceção do mais proeminente. Após o procedimento de filtragem, o sinal é recomposto através de reconstrução wavelet. Para a avaliação de seus resultados, foram testadas dez wavelets no processo de decomposição e reconstrução. Para a wavelet que apresentou melhores resultados, obteve-se uma atenuação dos sons cardíacos da ordem de 6dB em relação aos sons adventícios que ocorrem na mesma faixa espectral, utilizando a Densidade Espectral de Potência dos sinais como referência. Esta metodologia mostrou resultados satisfatórios na tarefa de eliminar tanto os ruídos relativos ao fluxo aéreo normal nas vias aeríferas quanto os sons cardíacos, mantendo somente os sons adventícios nas gravações de sons pulmonares

Signal processing techniques for extracting signals with periodic structure : applications to biomedical signals

In this dissertation some advanced methods for extracting sources from single and multichannel data are developed and utilized in biomedical applications. It is assumed that the sources of interest have periodic structure and therefore, the periodicity is exploited in various forms. The proposed methods can even be used for the cases where the signals have hidden periodicities, i.e., the periodic behaviour is not detectable from their time representation or even Fourier transform of the signal. For the case of single channel recordings a method based on singular spectrum anal ysis (SSA) of the signal is proposed. The proposed method is utilized in localizing heart sounds in respiratory signals, which is an essential pre-processing step in most of the heart sound cancellation methods. Artificially mixed and real respiratory signals are used for evaluating the method. It is shown that the performance of the proposed method is superior to those of the other methods in terms of false detection. More over, the execution time is significantly lower than that of the method ranked second in performance. For multichannel data, the problem is tackled using two approaches. First, it is assumed that the sources are periodic and the statistical characteristics of periodic sources are exploited in developing a method to effectively choose the appropriate delays in which the diagonalization takes place. In the second approach it is assumed that the sources of interest are cyclostationary. Necessary and sufficient conditions for extractability of the sources are mathematically proved and the extraction algorithms are proposed. Ballistocardiogram (BCG) artifact is considered as the sum of a number of independent cyclostationary components having the same cycle frequency. The proposed method, called cyclostationary source extraction (CSE), is able to extract these components without much destructive effect on the background electroencephalogram (EEG

Proceedings, MSVSCC 2011

Proceedings of the 5th Annual Modeling, Simulation & Visualization Student Capstone Conference held on April 14, 2011 at VMASC in Suffolk, Virginia. 186 pp