JP7041911B2 - Respiratory sound processing device, respiratory sound processing method, and computer program - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a respiratory sound processing device and a respiratory sound processing method for processing acquired breath sounds, and a technical field of a computer program for causing a computer to execute the respiratory sound processing method.

An example of such a breath sound processing apparatus is described in Patent Document 1. Specifically, in Patent Document 1, the patterns of electric signals output by a plurality of microphones capable of collecting the biological sound of a subject are compared, and the patterns of electric signals output by any of the microphones are different. Described is a breathing sound processing device that determines that an abnormality has occurred in a living body and issues an alarm when the pattern of an electric signal output by a microphone deviates by a predetermined amount or more.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2014-050614

In the breath sound processing apparatus described in Patent Document 1 described above, it is necessary to compare the patterns of electric signals output by a plurality of microphones with each other. For this reason, there arises a technical problem that the processing load of the breath sound processing device becomes larger than that of the breath sound processing device which does not need to compare the patterns of the electric signals output by the plurality of microphones with each other.

The above-mentioned problems are given as an example of the problems to be solved by the present invention. An object of the present invention is to provide a respiratory sound processing device, a respiratory sound processing method, and a computer program capable of performing processing related to respiratory sounds with a relatively small processing load.

A first aspect of the respiratory sound processing apparatus of the present invention is a determination unit for determining whether or not the amount of increase in the volume of breath sounds during a predetermined period is equal to or greater than the first threshold value, and the increase amount is the first threshold value. When it is determined that the above is the case, it is provided with an output unit that outputs a predetermined signal.

A first aspect of the respiratory sound processing method of the present invention is a determination step of determining whether or not the amount of increase in the volume of breath sounds during a predetermined period is equal to or greater than the first threshold value, and the increase amount is the first threshold value. When it is determined that the above is the case, an output step of outputting a predetermined signal is provided.

The first aspect of the computer program of the present invention causes a computer to execute the first aspect of the breath sound processing method of the present invention described above.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a biological monitoring device of this embodiment. FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a flow of an operation for acquiring a breath sound. FIG. 3 is a table showing an example of the data structure of the volume data stored in the storage device. Each of FIGS. 4 (a) to 4 (c) is a plan view showing a display example of the respiratory volume. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the flow of an operation for determining whether or not the state of the living body is abnormal. 6 (a) and 6 (b) are graphs showing the respiratory volume during a predetermined period. FIG. 7 is a table showing volume data used for calculating the amount of increase in respiratory volume over time during a predetermined period. FIG. 8 is a plan view showing a display example of the amount of increase in breath sounds.

Hereinafter, the breath sound processing device, the breath sound processing method, and the embodiment of the computer program will be described.

(Embodiment of breath sound processing device)
<1>
In the embodiment of the breath sound processing device, a determination unit for determining whether or not the amount of increase in the volume of the breath sound during a predetermined period is equal to or greater than the first threshold value, and a determination unit for determining whether the increase amount is equal to or greater than the first threshold value. When this is done, it is provided with an output unit that outputs a predetermined signal.

According to the research by the inventors of the present application, it has been found that when the breath sounds are abnormal, the volume of the breath sounds is increased as compared with the case where the breath sounds are not abnormal. Specifically, when abnormal sounds (for example, secondary noise) are mixed in the breath sounds, the volume of the breath sounds becomes louder than the volume of the breath sounds that do not contain the abnormal sounds due to the mixing of the abnormal sounds. It turns out that. Therefore, according to the embodiment of the breath sound processing apparatus, it is possible to substantially determine whether or not an abnormality has occurred in the living body based on the amount of increase in the volume of the breath sound. Specifically, in the embodiment of the respiratory sound processing device, when it is determined that the amount of increase in the volume of the respiratory sound is equal to or greater than the first threshold value, it is determined that an abnormality has occurred in the living body, and it is desired. An output signal (for example, a warning signal described later) can be output.

As described above, the embodiment of the breath sound processing device substantially determines whether or not an abnormality has occurred in the living body without comparing the patterns of electric signals output by a plurality of breath sound sensors (for example, a microphone) with each other. Can be determined. Therefore, in the embodiment of the respiratory sound processing device, the processing related to the respiratory sound (here, the processing of determining whether or not the increase amount is equal to or greater than the first threshold value and outputting the output signal) is performed with a relatively small processing load. It can be carried out.

<2>
In another embodiment of the breath sound processing apparatus described above, the determination unit determines whether or not the increase amount during the predetermined period is equal to or greater than the first threshold value and the predetermined period. Determines whether the increased amount during the other predetermined period, which is at least partially different, is equal to or higher than the other first threshold value, and the output unit determines that the increased amount during the one predetermined period is the said. When it is determined that the amount is equal to or greater than one first threshold value and / or the amount of increase during the other predetermined period is equal to or greater than the other first threshold value, the predetermined signal is output.

According to this aspect, the breath sound processing device can more accurately determine whether or not an abnormality has occurred in the living body based on the amount of increase in the volume of the breath sound during at least partially different periods. Is.

<3>
In another embodiment of the breath sound processing apparatus described above, the determination unit further determines whether or not the volume is equal to or higher than the second threshold value, and the output unit has (i) the increase amount. When it is determined that the volume is equal to or higher than the first threshold value and the volume is equal to or higher than the second threshold value, the predetermined signal is output, and (ii) it is determined that the increase amount is equal to or higher than the first threshold value. Even in this case, if it is determined that the volume is not equal to or higher than the second threshold value, the predetermined signal is not output.

Considering that the volume of the breath sounds increases when the breath sounds are abnormal as described above, if the volume of the breath sounds is correspondingly loud, it is relatively possible that the breath sounds are abnormal. High. On the other hand, if the volume of the breath sounds is not so loud, there is a possibility that the breath sounds are not abnormal. Therefore, even if the increase in the volume of the breath sounds is equal to or higher than the first threshold value, if the volume of the breath sounds is not so loud (that is, not equal to or higher than the second threshold value), no abnormality has occurred in the breath sounds. (As a result, no abnormality has occurred in the living body). Therefore, according to this aspect, since the volume of the breath sound itself is referred to in addition to the amount of increase in the volume of the breath sound, the respiratory sound processing device can more accurately determine whether or not an abnormality has occurred in the living body. Can be determined.

<4>
In another embodiment of the breath sound processing apparatus described above, the increase is an increase from the minimum value of the volume during the predetermined period.

According to this aspect, the respiratory sound processing apparatus can determine with higher accuracy whether or not an abnormality has occurred in the living body based on the amount of increase based on the minimum value.

<5>
In another embodiment of the breath sound processing apparatus described above, the predetermined signal includes a warning signal for warning an abnormality of a living body.

According to this aspect, the respiratory sound processing device can appropriately warn that an abnormality has occurred in the living body.

(Embodiment of breath sound processing method)
<6>
The embodiment of the breath sound processing method includes a determination step of determining whether or not the amount of increase in the volume of the breath sound during a predetermined period is equal to or greater than the first threshold value, and determining that the increase amount is equal to or greater than the first threshold value. If this is the case, it is provided with an output step of outputting a predetermined signal.

According to the embodiment of the breath sound processing method, the library used by the embodiment of the breath sound processing apparatus described above can be appropriately generated. In addition, corresponding to the other aspects that can be adopted by the embodiment of the breath sound processing device, the embodiment of the breath sound processing method may also adopt the other embodiment.

(Embodiment of computer program)
<7>
The embodiment of the computer program causes a computer to execute the embodiment of the breath sound processing method described above.

According to the embodiment of the computer program, it is possible to preferably enjoy the same effect as that of the above-described embodiment of the respiratory sound processing method. In addition, corresponding to the other embodiment adopted by the embodiment of the breath sound processing method, the embodiment of the computer program may also adopt the other embodiment.

The actions and other gains of the breath sound processing apparatus, the breath sound processing method, and the embodiments of the computer program will be described in more detail in the examples shown below.

As described above, the embodiment of the respiratory sound processing device includes a determination unit and an output unit. The embodiment of the breath sound processing method includes a determination step and an output step. The embodiment of the computer program causes a computer to execute the embodiment of the breath sound processing method described above. Therefore, it is possible to perform processing related to breath sounds with a relatively small processing load.

Hereinafter, examples of a breath sound processing device, a breath sound processing method, and a computer program will be described with reference to the drawings. In the following, a description will be given using a breath sound processing device, a breath sound processing method, and a biological monitoring device 1 to which an embodiment of a computer program is applied.

(1) Configuration of Biological Monitoring Device 1 First, the configuration of the biological monitoring device 1 of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. 1. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the biological monitoring device 1 of this embodiment.

As shown in FIG. 1, the biological monitoring device 1 monitors the state of the living body. Specifically, the biological monitoring device 1 monitors whether or not an abnormality has occurred in the living body (that is, the state of the living body is abnormal), and if the abnormality has occurred in the living body, that fact is notified. Notify the user. In order to monitor the state of the living body, the living body monitoring device 1 is a specific example of a plurality of (four in the example shown in FIG. 1) breath sound sensors 11 and a "respiratory sound processing device" in the above-described embodiment. It includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 12, a storage device 13, a display 14, an operating device 15, and a speaker 16.

Each breath sound sensor 11 acquires (that is, detects) the breath sound of a living body. As an example of the breathing sound sensor 11, a microphone that directly detects the vibration of the air caused by the breathing sound and the vibration of the diaphragm to which the vibration of the medium (for example, the patient's body surface) caused by the breathing sound is transmitted are detected. There is a vibration sensor that detects the breathing sound. It is preferable that the plurality of breath sound sensors 11 are attached to different parts of the living body. The breath sound signal, which is the detection result of each breath sound sensor 11, is output from each breath sound sensor 11 to the CPU 12.

The CPU 12 controls the overall operation of the biological monitoring device 1. In this embodiment, in particular, the CPU 12 includes a volume calculation unit 121, a difference calculation unit 122, and the "determination" in the above-described embodiment as processing blocks logically realized in the CPU 12 by the CPU 12 executing a computer program. A determination unit 123, which is a specific example of the "unit", and a warning unit 124, which is a specific example of the "output unit" in the above-described embodiment, are provided. The operations of the volume calculation unit 121, the difference calculation unit 122, the determination unit 123, and the warning unit 124 will be described in detail later with reference to FIG. 2 and the like, but the outline thereof will be briefly described below. The volume calculation unit 121 calculates the volume of the breath sounds indicated by the breath sounds signals (hereinafter referred to as “breath sounds volume”) based on the breath sounds signals. The difference calculation unit 122 increases the respiratory volume during a predetermined period (that is, the amount of increase in the respiratory volume over time, hereinafter referred to as “respiratory sound increase amount”, based on the respiratory volume calculated by the volume calculation unit 121. ) Is calculated. The determination unit 123 determines whether or not the respiratory sound increase amount calculated by the difference calculation unit 122 is equal to or greater than the predetermined threshold value TH1. When the determination unit 123 determines that the amount of increase in breath sounds is equal to or higher than the threshold value TH1, a warning signal for notifying that an abnormality has occurred in the living body is output to the display 14, and the warning sound is output from the speaker 16. do.

The storage device 13 stores volume data indicating the breathing volume calculated by the volume calculation unit 121. The volume data stored in the storage device 13 is appropriately referred to when the difference calculation unit 122 calculates the increase amount. The storage device 13 includes, for example, a hard disk and a solid state drive.

The display 14 can display a desired display object (for example, an image, a moving image, etc.) under the control of the CPU 12. In particular, when a warning signal is output from the CPU 12 (particularly, the warning unit 124), the display 14 displays a display indicating that an abnormality has occurred in the living body.

The operation device 15 is a device that can be operated by a user of the biological monitoring device 1 (for example, a medical worker such as a doctor or a nurse). For example, the user performs an operation for setting the operation content of the biological monitoring device 1 by using the operating device 15. The operating device 15 includes, for example, at least one of a mouse, a keyboard, and a touch panel attached to the display 14.

The speaker 16 generates a warning sound when an abnormality has occurred in the living body.

(2) Operation of the biological monitoring device 1 Next, the operation of the biological monitoring device 1 of this embodiment will be described. In this embodiment, the biological monitoring device 1 performs an operation of acquiring a breath sound and an operation of determining whether or not an abnormality has occurred in the living body based on the acquired breath sound in parallel. Therefore, in the following, the operation of acquiring the breath sound and the operation of determining whether or not an abnormality has occurred in the living body will be described in order.

(2-1) Operation for acquiring respiratory sounds First, an operation for acquiring breath sounds will be described with reference to FIG. 2. FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a flow of an operation for acquiring a breath sound.

As shown in FIG. 2, each of the plurality of breath sound sensors 11 acquires the breath sounds (step S11). Each breath sound sensor 11 outputs a breath sound signal, which is a detection result, to the CPU 12. The breath sound signal is an analog signal showing the intensity of the breath sound (that is, the amplitude level corresponding to the volume) as a waveform on the time axis.

After that, the volume calculation unit 121 calculates the breath sounds volume based on the breath sounds signals output by each breath sound sensor 11 (step S12). At this time, the volume calculation unit 121 calculates the breath volume separately for each breath sound sensor 11. That is, the volume calculation unit 121 calculates the volume of the breath sound acquired by the first breath sound sensor 11 based on the breath sound signal output by the first breath sound sensor 11, and the second breath sound sensor 11 Calculates the volume of the breath sounds acquired by the second breath sound sensor 11 based on the breath sounds signal output by the fourth breath sound sensor 11, and ... Based on the breath sounds signal output by the fourth breath sound sensor 11. The volume of the breath sounds acquired by the breath sounds sensor 11 of 4 is calculated.

The volume calculation unit 121 may adopt an existing operation as an operation of calculating the breath volume based on the breath sound signal. Hereinafter, an example of an operation of calculating the breath volume based on the breath sound signal will be described. The volume calculation unit 121 converts the breath sounds signal, which is an analog signal, into a digital signal. As a result, the volume calculation unit 121 acquires a finite number of sample values (that is, sample values indicating the volume). After that, the volume calculation unit 121 calculates the RMS value which is the root mean square of the sample values during the predetermined respiratory volume calculation period (for example, the period of the last 10 seconds). That is, when N sample values (x ₁ , x ₂ , ..., X _N ) exist during the breathing volume calculation period, the volume calculation unit 121 uses the RMS value = ((x ₁ ² + x ₂ ). ² +, ... + x _N ² ) / N) ^1/2 ) Calculate the RMS value using the formula. After that, the volume calculation unit 121 converts the RMS value into a dB value indicating the breathing volume in units of decibels using the mathematical formula of dB value = 20 × log ₁₀ (RMS value). In this embodiment, at least one of the RMS value and the dB value is used as the respiratory volume.

Since the breath sound signal can be continuously acquired, the volume calculation unit 121 continuously calculates the breath volume. For example, the volume calculation unit 121 newly calculates the respiratory volume each time the respiratory volume calculation period elapses (for example, each time 10 seconds elapse).

After that, the storage device 13 stores the volume data indicating the breathing volume calculated by the volume calculation unit 121 (step S13). The storage device 13 stores the volume data so that the stored breath volume is the volume of the breath sound acquired by which breath sound sensor 11. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 3, which shows an example of the volume data stored in the storage device 13, the storage device 13 stores the respiratory volume after associating the respiratory volume with the sensor ID of the respiratory sound sensor 11. Further, the storage device 13 stores the volume data so that the stored breath volume is the volume of the acquired breath sound at which date and time. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 3, the storage device 13 stores the respiratory volume after associating the respiratory volume with the date and time. Note that FIG. 3 shows an example of volume data including both the RMS value and the dB value as the respiratory volume. However, the storage device 13 may store volume data including either the RMS value or the dB value.

In parallel with the storage of the volume data in the storage device 13, the display 14 may display the breathing volume calculated by the volume calculation unit 121. For example, as shown in FIG. 4A, the display 14 may indicate the respiratory volume using a graph showing the respiratory volume as a waveform on the time axis. Alternatively, since a plurality of breath sounds sensors 11 are attached to different parts of the living body, the display 14 displays a graph showing the volume of the breath sounds acquired by a certain breath sounds sensor 11 as shown in FIG. 4 (b). , The breath sounds may be displayed in association with the position of the acquired living body. Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 4C, the display 14 displays a display object showing the magnitude of the volume of the breath sound acquired by a certain breath sound sensor 11 in color depth, and the display 14 is a living body from which the breath sound is acquired. It may be displayed in association with the position.

The process from step S11 to step S13 described above is repeated until an instruction to end the operation of acquiring the breath sound is requested by the user using the operating device 15 (step S14).

(2-2) Operation for determining whether or not an abnormality has occurred in a living body Next, an operation for determining whether or not an abnormality has occurred in the living body will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a flow of an operation for determining whether or not an abnormality has occurred in a living body.

As shown in FIG. 5, first, the difference calculation unit 122 calculates the respiratory sound increase amount (that is, the increase amount of the respiratory volume during a predetermined period) (step S21). When calculating the respiratory sound increase amount, the difference calculation unit 122 calculates the respiratory sound increase amount separately for each respiratory sound sensor 11 in the same manner as in the case of calculating the respiratory volume. That is, the difference calculation unit 122 calculates the amount of increase in the respiratory volume detected by the first respiratory sound sensor 11 during the predetermined period, and the amount of increase in the respiratory volume detected by the second respiratory sound sensor 11 during the predetermined period. ..., The amount of increase in the respiratory volume detected by the fourth respiratory sound sensor 11 during a predetermined period is calculated.

The predetermined period is a period whose end time is the current time (that is, the time when the process of step S21 is performed). For example, the predetermined period may be a period of several minutes or several tens of minutes (for example, 30 minutes) from the current time. For example, the predetermined period may be a period of several hours in the past from the current time. This predetermined period may be preset by default. The predetermined period may be set by the instruction of the user via the operating device 15.

As shown in FIG. 6A, the amount of increase in the respiratory volume during the predetermined period is the current time (that is, the end time of the predetermined period) with respect to the minimum value (that is, the minimum value) of the respiratory volume during the predetermined period. The amount of increase in breathing volume. However, as shown in FIG. 6B, the amount of increase in the respiratory volume during the predetermined period may be the amount of increase in the respiratory volume at the current time with respect to the respiratory volume at the start time of the predetermined period. Alternatively, the amount of increase in the respiratory volume during the predetermined period may be the amount of increase in the respiratory volume at the current time with respect to the respiratory volume at any time during the predetermined period.

The difference calculation unit 122 calculates the respiratory sound increase amount based on the volume data stored in the storage device 122 (particularly, a part of the volume data indicating the respiratory volume during a predetermined period). For example, in FIG. 7, in the volume data, the current time is 10:22:00 and the predetermined period is the period of the past 1 hour from the current time (that is, from 9:22:00 to 10:22:00). Indicates the data portion referred to by the difference calculation unit 122 in the case of the period up to). From this data portion, the difference calculation unit 122 specifies the minimum value of the breath volume during a predetermined period for each breath sound sensor 11. After that, the difference calculation unit 122 calculates the amount of increase in the breath volume at the current time with respect to the specified minimum value for each breath sound sensor 11. As a result, the amount of increase in breath sounds is calculated for each breath sensor 11.

The respiratory sound increase amount calculated by the difference calculation unit 122 is output from the difference calculation unit 122 to the determination unit 123. After that, the determination unit 123 determines whether or not the first abnormal condition regarding the respiratory sound increase amount calculated by the difference calculation unit 122 is satisfied (step S23). In this embodiment, as the first abnormal condition, a condition that the respiratory sound increase amount calculated by the difference calculation unit 122 is equal to or more than a predetermined threshold value TH1 is used.

Since the biological monitoring device 1 includes a plurality of respiratory sound sensors 11, the determination unit 123 outputs the same number of respiratory sound increase amounts as the respiratory sound sensor 11. In this case, the first abnormal condition is that the respiratory sound increase amount of any one of the plurality of respiratory sound increases is the threshold value TH1 or more (on the other hand, the remaining respiratory sound increase amount of the plurality of respiratory sound increases over time is It does not matter whether or not the threshold value is TH1 or higher). Alternatively, in the first abnormal condition, the increase in respiratory sounds of two or more of the plurality of increases over time is the threshold value TH1 or higher (while the remaining increase in respiratory sounds among the plurality of increases in breath sounds is the threshold value). It does not matter whether it is TH1 or higher). Alternatively, the abnormal condition may be a condition that all of the plurality of respiratory sound increase amounts are equal to or higher than the threshold value TH1.

The first abnormality condition used in step S22 is preset by default, but may be set (that is, changed) by a user's instruction via the operating device 15.

The threshold value TH1 is set to an appropriate value so that normal respiratory sounds and abnormal respiratory sounds can be distinguished from each other according to the amount of increase in respiratory sounds. Specifically, according to the research by the inventors of the present application, it has been found that when an abnormality occurs in the breath sounds, the respiratory volume becomes louder as compared with the case where the breath sounds do not have an abnormality. Specifically, the volume of the breath sounds mixed with abnormal sounds (for example, secondary noise) may be higher than the volume of the breath sounds containing no abnormal sounds due to the mixing of the abnormal sounds. It is known. Therefore, the threshold value TH1 is set to an appropriate value that can discriminate between the breath sounds containing such abnormal sounds and the breath sounds not containing the abnormal sounds. Although the threshold value TH1 is preset by default, it may be set (or adjusted) according to a user's instruction via the operating device 15.

As a result of the determination in step S22, when it is determined that the first abnormal condition is satisfied (that is, the amount of increase in the respiratory sound is equal to or higher than the predetermined threshold value TH1) (step S22: Yes), the respiratory sound is abnormal. Is presumed to have occurred (that is, an abnormal sound is included). This is because, as described above, when an abnormality occurs in the breath sounds, the breath volume becomes louder. Therefore, it is presumed that some abnormality that causes an abnormality in the breath sounds has occurred in the living body. In this case, the warning unit 124 outputs a warning signal to the display 14 for notifying that an abnormality has occurred in the living body (step S23). As a result, the display 14 displays a display object (for example, an image or the like) indicating that an abnormality has occurred in the living body. Further, a warning sound is output from the speaker 16.

On the other hand, when it is determined as a result of the determination in step S22 that the first abnormal condition is not satisfied (that is, the amount of increase over time is not equal to or higher than the predetermined threshold value TH1) (step S22: No), the breath sounds. It is presumed that no abnormality has occurred in (that is, no abnormal sound is included). In this case, the warning unit 124 does not output the warning signal to the display 14. Also, the warning sound is not output to the speaker 16.

The process from step S21 to step S23 described above is repeated until an instruction to end the operation of determining whether or not an abnormality has occurred in the living body is requested by the user using the operating device 15 (step). S24).

(3) Technical effects As described above, the biological monitoring device 1 of the present embodiment determines whether or not the respiratory sound increase amount is equal to or higher than the threshold value TH1 to determine whether or not an abnormality has occurred in the living body. Can be determined. Therefore, the biological monitoring device 1 can determine whether or not an abnormality has occurred in the living body without comparing the breath sounds acquired by the plurality of breath sound sensors 11 with each other. Therefore, the biological monitoring device 1 can perform an operation of determining whether or not an abnormality has occurred in the living body with a relatively small processing load.

In addition, the biological monitoring device 1 of the present embodiment can determine whether or not an abnormality has occurred in the living body based on the breath sounds. For this reason, the living body is based on parameters such as percutaneous arterial oxygen saturation (SpO ₂ ), which change so as to be delayed after the occurrence of abnormal breath sounds (or abnormalities in the living body). Compared with the biological monitoring device 1 of the comparative example for determining whether or not an abnormality has occurred, it is possible to determine whether or not an abnormality has occurred in the living body at an earlier stage.

(4) Modification example
(4-1) First Modification Example In the above description, the condition that the amount of increase in breath sounds during a single predetermined period becomes the threshold value TH1 or more is used as the first abnormal condition. However, as the first abnormal condition, a condition that the amount of increase in respiratory sounds during a plurality of different predetermined periods becomes the threshold value TH1 or more may be used. For example, a second predetermined period in which the amount of increase in breathing sound during the first predetermined period (for example, the period of the past 30 minutes from the current time) is equal to or higher than the first threshold value TH1-1 and is different from the first predetermined period. The condition that the amount of increase in breathing sound during (for example, the period of the past 1 hour from the current time) becomes the second threshold value TH1-2 or more may be used as the first abnormal condition. Alternatively, for example, the respiratory sound increase amount during the first predetermined period becomes the first threshold value TH1-1 or more, or the respiratory sound increase amount during the second predetermined period becomes the second threshold value TH1-2 or more. The condition of becoming may be used as the first abnormal condition. The first threshold value TH1-1 may be the same as or different from the second threshold value TH1-2. The same applies to the first abnormal condition regarding the amount of increase in breath sounds during three or more predetermined periods. That is, the amount of increase in breathing sound during the first predetermined period (for example, the period of the past 30 minutes from the current time) becomes the first threshold value TH1-1 or more, and / or is different from the first predetermined period. The amount of increase in breathing sound during the predetermined period of 2 (for example, the period of the past 1 hour from the current time) becomes the second threshold value TH1-2 or more, ..., The predetermined period of the first predetermined period to the predetermined period of K-1. A condition that the amount of increase in breathing sound during a predetermined period (for example, a period of the past 2 hours from the current time) of the K (where K is an integer of 2 or more) different from the period becomes the threshold TH1-K or more of the K. However, it may be used as the first abnormal condition. In this case, all of the first threshold value TH1-1 to the Kth threshold value TH1-K may be the same, or at least one of the first threshold value TH1-1 to the Kth threshold value TH1-K is the first. It may be different from at least one of the threshold values TH1-1 of 1 to TH1-K of the Kth threshold.

According to such a first modification, the biological monitoring device 1 can recognize how the respiratory volume is changing (that is, increasing) with higher accuracy. Therefore, the biological monitoring device 1 can determine with higher accuracy whether or not an abnormality has occurred in the living body.

When the condition that the amount of increase in respiratory sounds during a plurality of different predetermined periods is equal to or higher than the threshold value TH1 is used as the first abnormal condition, the difference calculation unit 122 increases the respiratory sounds in each of the plurality of different predetermined periods. Calculate the amount.

(4-2) In step S22 of FIG. 5 described above, the second modification determination unit 123 determines whether or not the above-mentioned first abnormality condition regarding the amount of increase in breath sounds is satisfied, and the second abnormality regarding the breath volume. It may be determined whether or not the condition is satisfied. As described above, when an abnormality occurs in the breath sounds, the breath sounds become loud. Therefore, the condition that the breath sounds become the predetermined threshold value TH2 or more is given as an example of the second or more conditions. The threshold value TH2 is set to an appropriate value so that a normal respiratory sound and an abnormal respiratory sound can be distinguished from each other according to the volume of the respiratory volume, similarly to the threshold value TH1. When the first and second abnormal conditions are used, the warning unit 124 outputs a warning signal when it is determined that both the first abnormal condition and the second abnormal condition are satisfied. On the other hand, the warning unit 124 does not output a warning signal when it is determined that at least one of the first abnormal condition and the second abnormal condition is not satisfied. For example, the warning unit 124 does not output a warning signal when it is determined that the first abnormal condition is satisfied but the second abnormal condition is not satisfied.

Considering that the respiratory volume increases when the respiratory sound is abnormal as described above, it is relatively high that the respiratory sound is abnormal when the respiratory volume itself is correspondingly loud. On the other hand, if the breath sounds themselves are not so loud, there is a possibility that the breath sounds are not abnormal. Therefore, according to the second modification, when determining whether or not an abnormality has occurred in the living body, the living body monitoring device 1 refers to the living body in addition to the breath sound increasing amount itself. It is possible to determine with higher accuracy whether or not an abnormality has occurred. In other words, it is possible to suppress the occurrence of a situation in which it is erroneously determined that an abnormality has occurred in the living body based on the amount of increase in breath sounds even though no abnormality has actually occurred in the living body.

(4-3) Other Modifications The display 14 may display the respiratory sound increase amount calculated by the difference calculation unit 122. For example, as shown in FIG. 8, the display 14 displays a display object in which the amount of increase in the volume of the breath sounds acquired by a certain breath sound sensor 11 is indicated by the color depth of the living body from which the breath sounds are acquired. It may be displayed in association with the position.

In the above description, the biological monitoring device 1 includes a plurality of respiratory sound sensors 11. However, the biological monitoring device 1 may include a single respiratory sound sensor 11.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and can be appropriately modified within the scope of claims and within the scope not contrary to the gist or idea of the invention that can be read from the entire specification, and the respiratory sound processing accompanied by such a modification. Devices, breath sound processing methods, and computer programs are also included in the technical scope of the present invention.

1 Biological monitoring device 11 Respiratory sound sensor 12 CPU
121 Volume calculation unit 122 Difference calculation unit 123 Judgment unit 124 Warning unit

Claims (7)

A determination unit that determines whether or not the amount of increase in the volume of breath sounds during a predetermined period is equal to or greater than the first threshold value.
It is provided with an output unit that outputs a predetermined signal when it is determined that the increase amount is equal to or greater than the first threshold value.
The increase amount is the increase amount of the breath sound volume at the end time of the predetermined period with respect to the volume of the breath sound at the start time of the predetermined period, or the minimum value of the volume of the breath sound during the predetermined period. The amount of increase in the volume of breath sounds at the end time,
The first threshold value is a respiratory sound processing device characterized in that a normal respiratory sound and an abnormal respiratory sound are set to a value that can be distinguished from the increased amount . The determination unit determines whether or not the amount of increase over time during the predetermined period is equal to or greater than the first threshold value, and during another predetermined period that is at least partially different from the predetermined period. It is determined whether or not the amount of increase over time is equal to or greater than the other first threshold value.
In the output unit, the amount of increase over time during the one predetermined period is equal to or greater than the first threshold value of the one, and / or the amount of increase over time during the other predetermined period is equal to or greater than the other first threshold value. The respiratory sound processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined signal is output when the determination is made. The determination unit further determines whether or not the volume is equal to or higher than the second threshold value.
The output unit outputs the predetermined signal when it is determined that (i) the amount of increase over time is equal to or higher than the first threshold value and the volume is equal to or higher than the second threshold value, and (ii) the said. Even if it is determined that the amount of increase over time is equal to or greater than the first threshold value, if it is determined that the volume is not equal to or greater than the second threshold value, the predetermined signal is not output. The breath sound processing apparatus according to claim 1 or 2. The respiratory sound processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the amount of increase over time is an amount of increase from the minimum value of the volume during the predetermined period. The respiratory sound processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the predetermined signal includes a warning signal for warning an abnormality of a living body. A determination step in which the breath sound processing device determines whether or not the amount of increase in the volume of the breath sound over time is equal to or greater than the first threshold value.
The respiratory sound processing apparatus includes an output step of outputting a predetermined signal when it is determined that the amount of increase over time is equal to or greater than the first threshold value .
The increase amount is the increase amount of the breath sound volume at the end time of the predetermined period with respect to the volume of the breath sound at the start time of the predetermined period, or the minimum value of the volume of the breath sound during the predetermined period. The amount of increase in the volume of breath sounds at the end time,
The first threshold value is a respiratory sound processing method characterized in that a normal respiratory sound and an abnormal respiratory sound are set to a value that can be distinguished from the increased amount . A computer program comprising causing a computer to execute the breath sound processing method according to claim 6.

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