JPH06181921A - Sound collection section for stethoscope - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a sound collection section of a stethoscope having no mechanical contact on the sound collection section, having reliability, facilitating maintenance and control, surely operating when used on the clothes for auscultation, and giving no harmful effect to a pace maker or the collection of the electrocardiographic complex. CONSTITUTION:A sound collection section A converts the in vivo sound collected by a chest piece 1 put on a testee into the electric signal with a microphone 9 for conversion into the signal required by a tester at the signal processing section of a stethoscope. The chest piece 1 is provided with a noncontact switch opening or closing the signal circuit of the microphone 9, and the noncontact switch is made of a photo-sensor 5.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a sound collecting portion of a stethoscope used by a doctor or the like to hear body sounds of a subject, and particularly a signal for converting body sound into a signal required by the doctor or the like. The present invention relates to a sound collecting unit of a stethoscope including a processing unit.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Doctors or the like apply the sound collecting section to the body of a subject to hear the body sound of the subject. In this case, the sound pressure level of the collected in-vivo sound is low, and various other noises are mixed in, making it difficult to auscultate. There is. Conventionally, when the stethoscope is not used, that is, when the sound collecting unit is not used, the sound collecting unit has a switch that opens and closes with a mechanical contact in order to open the signal circuit of the microphone. Also, an electrostatic sensor or the like that is brought into contact with the subject and switches is provided.

[0003]

A stethoscope is a medical device that provides the most basic information for diagnosis, and failure and malfunction must be avoided. A switch that has a contact has a problem in that it has poor weather resistance and is difficult to maintain and manage, and there is a risk of defective contact.

Further, in the electrostatic sensor which is brought into contact with the subject and switches, when the sound collecting portion is applied from the upper part of the clothing, the capacitance may not be sufficiently changed, and the electrostatic sensor may not operate. When applied to the skin of the examiner, there are problems that the pacemaker or the like may be modulated or an abnormal wave may be recorded when the electrocardiogram is collected.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems. The purpose of the present invention is that the sound collecting portion has no mechanical contact, is reliable, and is easy to maintain. It is an object of the present invention to provide a sound collecting unit of a stethoscope that is resistant to disinfection or sterilization operation, operates reliably even when auscultated from above clothing, and does not adversely affect pacemaker and electrocardiogram collection.

[0006]

As means for achieving the above object, in the sound collecting unit of the stethoscope according to claim 1 of the present invention, the signal processing unit of the stethoscope converts the signal into a signal required by the examiner. In order to do so, in the sound collection unit for converting the body sound collected by the chest piece applied to the subject into an electric signal by the microphone, the chest piece is provided with a non-contact switch for opening and closing the signal circuit of the microphone, and the non-contact switch Is an optical sensor.

Further, in the sound collecting unit of the stethoscope according to claim 2, in the sound collecting unit of the stethoscope according to claim 1, the non-contact switch is provided at a position where switching is performed only by bringing a finger of an examiner into contact. The touch sensor is configured as described above.

[0008]

In the sound collecting unit of the stethoscope according to the first aspect, since the optical sensor is used for the switch, the sound collecting unit has no mechanical contact point and the reliability is improved. In addition, maintenance is easy, and it is possible to endure disinfection or sterilization operations, and to surely perform auscultation even on clothes. In addition, it does not adversely affect the operation of the pacemaker or the electrocardiogram collection.

In the sound collecting unit of the stethoscope according to the second aspect, since the touch sensor is used as the switch, the sound collecting unit has no mechanical contact like the above and reliability is improved. In addition, maintenance management is easy. In particular, the touch sensor is not intended to be applied to the skin of the subject to be sensed, but to be sensed by touching the examiner's finger, so that auscultation can be surely performed even on clothes. In addition, it does not adversely affect the operation of the pacemaker or the electrocardiogram collection.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings. First, an embodiment of the sound collecting unit according to claim 1 will be described with reference to FIGS. 1, 2 and 3.

In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes a chest piece of a sound collecting section A, which comprises a film type section 2 and a bell type section 3.
The membrane part 2 is not provided with a diaphragm and has an open structure. Reference numeral 4 denotes a shaft portion, which is hollow and is fixed in the middle of the membrane portion 2 and the bell portion 3. 4 in the figure
a is a boss portion, and 4b is a rotation set screw.

Reference numeral 5 denotes an optical sensor provided in the film mold portion 2, which is arranged by a stay 6 at the center of the film mold portion 2 at the tip thereof. Reference numeral 7 denotes an optical sensor provided in the bell-shaped part 3, and the bell-shaped part 3 is provided by the stay 8 as described above.
It is located at the center of the tip. The optical sensor may be arranged at an appropriate position inside the light shielding cylinder provided inside the bell-shaped portion 3. The photosensor uses, for example, a CdS phototransistor.

Reference numeral 9 is a microphone for converting the in-vivo sound collected by the film type portion 2 into an electric signal, and 10 is a microphone for converting the in-vivo sound collected by the bell type portion 3 into an electric signal.

Reference numeral 11 denotes a detection amount comparison circuit of the optical sensor, which performs detection of the use side of the chest piece 1 and switching operation of each of the acoustic processing circuits 13 and 14 described later. Also, 12
Is a switching circuit that closes one of the microphones 9 and 10 in accordance with an instruction from the detection amount comparison circuit 11 of the optical sensor, and 13 is a membrane acoustic processing circuit of the microphone 9, the characteristic of which is a membrane provided with a diaphragm. It has the same harmonic characteristics as the natural sound heard in the mold.
Reference numeral 14 is also a bell-type sound processing circuit of the microphone 10, the characteristics of which are matched to the low-tone sound characteristics similar to the natural sound heard by the bell-shaped portion. Reference numeral 15 is an earphone that converts the output of each processing circuit into voice.

Next, the operation will be described. Both optical sensors 5 and 7 are activated at the time of diagnosis. For example, when the examiner presses the film-shaped portion 2 of the chest piece 1 against a main portion of the subject, the amount of light received by the optical sensor 5 changes. The detection amount comparison circuit 11 of the sensor switches the signal from the optical sensor 5 side to the switching circuit 12
Send to. In response to this signal, the switching circuit 12 closes the signal circuit of the microphone 9 and activates and processes the membrane acoustic processing circuit 13. Membrane type sound processing circuit 13
Then, the in-vivo sound sampled by the microphone 9 is modulated by an equalizer or the like into a harmonic acoustic characteristic similar to a natural sound to be heard by a film type portion having a diaphragm, and the earphone 15 is driven.

Next, when the examiner pushes the bell portion 3 against the main part of the subject, the amount of light received by the optical sensor 7 changes in the same manner as described above, and the detection amount comparison circuit 11 of the optical sensor moves to the optical sensor 7 side. Is sent to the switching circuit 12, and the switching circuit 12 closes the signal circuit on the side of the microphone 10 and activates the bell-type sound processing circuit 14 to hear the body sound sampled by the microphone 10 with a bell-type natural sound. The earphone 15 is driven by being modulated into a low-pitched acoustic characteristic similar to sound.

As described above, in this embodiment, since the microphones 9 and 10 are switched by the optical sensor, no mechanical contact point is required for the sound collecting section, the reliability is improved and the maintenance management is facilitated. . In addition, since the amount of light received by the optical sensor also changes when the sound collecting unit A is pressed against clothes,
It can be operated reliably even when used over clothing. Since it is electrically insulated from the subject side, the subject side is not energized, so that it does not adversely affect the operation of the pacemaker or the electrocardiogram collection.

Next, an embodiment of the sound collecting unit described in claim 2 will be described with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5. In the figure, 20 is a chest piece that is the main body of the sound collecting unit B, and is a film type unit 21.
And a bell-shaped portion 22. This film-shaped portion 21 also has an open structure without a diaphragm. In the film-shaped portion 21, a tip portion 23 that comes into contact with the subject is formed of an insulating material, and a base portion 24 that does not come into contact with the subject is formed of metal as a capacitance detection portion (touch sensor), The root portion 24 is screwed 26 to a boss portion 25 formed of an insulating material.
Has been done. Similarly, the bell-shaped portion 22 has a tip portion 27 made of an insulating material, and the base portion 2 at a position where it does not come into contact with the subject.
8 is formed of a metal as a capacitance detection portion (touch sensor), and the root portion 28 is screwed 29 to the boss portion 25. The root portion 24 of the film-shaped portion 21 and the root portion 28 of the bell-shaped portion 22 are connected to a capacitance detection amount comparison circuit 30. In the figure, 31 is a microphone for the membrane-shaped portion 21, 32 is a microphone for the bell-shaped portion 22, and the other configurations are the same as those in the above-described embodiment, and therefore the description thereof is omitted.

In this embodiment, while the examiner presses the membrane-shaped portion 21 against the subject, the base portion 2 of the bell-shaped portion 22 is pressed by the finger.
When touching 8, the detection amount comparison circuit 30 closes the signal circuit of the microphone 31 of the film type portion 21 and activates and processes the film type acoustic processing circuit 13 to modulate in-vivo sound into harmonic acoustic characteristics and output to the earphone 15. Let In addition, the examiner presses the bell-shaped portion 22 against the subject while the finger presses the membrane-shaped portion 2.
When contacting the root portion 24 of No. 1, the detection amount comparison circuit 30 closes the signal circuit of the microphone 32 of the bell-shaped portion 22 and activates the bell-shaped acoustic processing circuit to modulate the in-vivo sound into a low acoustic characteristic and output it to the earphone 15. Let

As described above, in the present embodiment, the microphones 31 and 32 are switched by the electrostatic capacitance detection section (electrostatic sensor), so that the sound collection section does not need a mechanical contact.
The reliability is improved and the maintenance is facilitated. In particular,
Since the electrostatic capacitance detection unit does not come into contact with the subject and is electrically insulated, the subject side is not energized, so there is no adverse effect on the operation of the pacemaker or the electrocardiogram collection.
In addition, in auscultatory procedures, the membrane type mainly produces harmonic sounds.
The bell type is mainly used for listening to low-pitched sounds. At this time, by setting the morphology of the sound-collecting section that preserves the morphological features of the membrane type and bell type, it has become proficient in the use of the (pipeline) stethoscope that has been used conventionally, or has received education. This is advantageous for the urgent need to make a quick and prompt decision during clinical use, because it is easy for the person to use and the selection method is not confusing.

The embodiments of the present invention have been described above.
The specific configuration of the present invention is not limited to this embodiment, and the present invention includes a design change and the like within a range not departing from the gist of the invention.

For example, in the embodiment, the microphone is provided in each of the film-shaped portion and the bell-shaped portion, but the number of microphones is not limited to this, and one microphone may be provided in the central portion. Further, the shape of the sound collecting portion can be set arbitrarily.

A diaphragm may be provided on the film-shaped portion. In addition, a protective film may be provided on the front surface of the microphone, which is a film-shaped portion or a bell-shaped portion, as a measure for disinfection. Further, a hole for gas sterilization may be provided at the end of the boss portion.

The body acoustics can be adjusted to arbitrary acoustic characteristics.

Further, the internal sound collected by the microphone is supposed to be the film-type sound and the bell-type sound, but the invention is not limited to this. An analog multiplexer, an A / D converter, an interface circuit such as an equalizer, a CPU, a RAM, and a RO.
An M, D / A converter or the like may be provided to perform digital conversion so that external noise mixed with body sound is collected by the other microphone to remove the external noise from body sound. . In this case, no matter which microphone is used for collecting the internal sound, the switching circuit always supplies the internal sound signal to the internal sound processing circuit side and the external noise signal to the external noise processing circuit side. be able to.

A differential amplifier may be used for these processing circuits.

[0027]

As described above, the present invention claims 1.
Since the sound collecting section of the stethoscope described above has the above-mentioned configuration, it has no mechanical contact point, is easy to maintain and manage, and can be surely auscultated even from above clothes. Further, it is possible to obtain an effect that the operation of the pacemaker and the electrocardiogram collection are not adversely affected. Further, even in the sound collecting unit of the stethoscope according to the second aspect, the same effect as the above can be obtained.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a vertical cross-sectional view showing a sound collecting unit of a first embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a bottom view of the above.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory view showing the stethoscope of the above.

FIG. 4 is a vertical cross-sectional view showing a sound collecting unit according to a second embodiment.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing the stethoscope of the same.

[Explanation of symbols]

A, B Sound collecting part 1,20 Chest piece 2,21 Membrane type part 3,22 Bell type part 5 Optical sensor of film type part 7 Optical sensor of bell type part 9,31 Microphone of film type part 10,32 Bell type Microphone 24 Root part of film type part as touch sensor (capacitance detection part) 28 Root part of bell type as touch sensor (capacitance detection part)

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[Procedure amendment]

[Submission date] March 24, 1993

[Procedure Amendment 1]

[Document name to be corrected] Drawing

[Correction target item name] All drawings

[Correction method] Change

[Correction content]

[Figure 1]

[Fig. 2]

[Figure 3]

[Figure 4]

[Figure 5]

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A sound collecting unit for converting a body sound collected by a chest piece applied to a subject to a signal required by an examiner in a signal processing unit of a stethoscope into an electric signal by a microphone, A sound collecting unit of a stethoscope, comprising a non-contact switch that opens and closes a signal circuit of the microphone in a chest piece, and the non-contact switch is an optical sensor. 2. The stethoscope of the stethoscope according to claim 1, wherein the non-contact switch is a touch sensor provided at a position for switching only by touching a finger of an examiner. Sound collection part.