Transmission of body sounds: an overview

Abstract

Body sounds show a high diagnostic value when auscultated on the skin. The sound transmission from sound sources to the site of auscultation plays an important role, for it determines the signal properties of the recorded biosignal. The present paper gives an overview about the unique phenomena of spreading and attenuations of the body sounds, showing that the heterogeneous structure of the thorax and the sound frequency influence strongly the propagation pathway and characteristics of the sounds. The issues pertaining to the transmission of the body sounds provide clinically relevant insights into the correlations between the physiological phenomena under investigation and the registered biosignals and offer a solid basis for both proper understanding of the biosignal relevance and optimization of the recording techniques.