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The assessment of atrioventricular junction (AVJ) deformation plays an important role in evaluating left ventricular systolic and diastolic function in clinical practice. This study aims to demonstrate the effectiveness and consistency of cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) for quantitative assessment of AVJ velocity compared with tissue Doppler echocardiography (TDE). A group of 145 human subjects comprising 21 healthy volunteers, 8 patients with heart failure, 17 patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, 52 patients with myocardial infarction, and 47 patients with repaired Tetralogy of Fallot were prospectively enrolled and underwent TDE and CMR scan. Six AVJ points were tracked with three CMR views. The peak systolic velocity (Sm1), diastolic velocity during early diastolic filling (Em), and late diastolic velocity during atrial contraction (Am) were extracted and analyzed. All CMRderived septal and lateral AVJ velocities correlated well with TDE measurements (Sm1: r = 0.736; Em: r = 0.835; Am: r = 0.701; Em/Am: r = 0.691; all p < 0.001) and demonstrated excellent reproducibility [intrastudy: r = 0.921-0.991, intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC): 0.918-0.991; interstudy: r = 0.900-0.970, ICC: 0.887- 0.957; all p < 0.001]. The evaluation of three-dimensional AVJ motion incorporating measurements from all views better differentiated normal and diseased states [area under the curve (AUC) = 0.918] and provided further insights into mechanical dyssynchrony diagnosis in HF patients (AUC = 0.987). These findings suggest that the CMR-based method is feasible, accurate, and consistent in quantifying the AVJ deformation, and subsequently in diagnosing systolic and diastolic cardiac dysfunction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most heart diseases are associated with and reflected by the sounds that the heart produces. Heart auscultation, defined as listening to the heart sound, has been a very important method for the early diagnosis of cardiac dysfunction. Traditional auscultation requires substantial clinical experience and good listening skills. The emergence of the electronic stethoscope has paved the way for a new field of computer-aided auscultation. This article provides an in-depth study of (1) the electronic stethoscope technology, and (2) the methodology for diagnosis of cardiac disorders based on computer-aided auscultation. The paper is based on a comprehensive review of (1) literature articles, (2) market (state-of-the-art) products, and (3) smartphone stethoscope apps. It covers in depth every key component of the computer-aided system with electronic stethoscope, from sensor design, front-end circuitry, denoising algorithm, heart sound segmentation, to the final machine learning techniques. Our intent is to provide an informative and illustrative presentation of the electronic stethoscope, which is valuable and beneficial to academics, researchers and engineers in the technical field, as well as to medical professionals to facilitate its use clinically. The paper provides the technological and medical basis for the development and commercialization of a realtime integrated heart sound detection, acquisition and quantification system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most heart diseases are associated with and reflected by the sounds that the heart produces. Heart auscultation, defined as listening to the heart sound, has been a very important method for the early diagnosis of cardiac dysfunction. Traditional auscultation requires substantial clinical experience and good listening skills. The emergence of the electronic stethoscope has paved the way for a new field of computer-aided auscultation. This article provides an in-depth study of (1) the electronic stethoscope technology, and (2) the methodology for diagnosis of cardiac disorders based on computer-aided auscultation. The paper is based on a comprehensive review of (1) literature articles, (2) market (state-of-the-art) products, and (3) smartphone stethoscope apps. It covers in depth every key component of the computer-aided system with electronic stethoscope, from sensor design, front-end circuitry, denoising algorithm, heart sound segmentation, to the final machine learning techniques. Our intent is to provide an informative and illustrative presentation of the electronic stethoscope, which is valuable and beneficial to academics, researchers and engineers in the technical field, as well as to medical professionals to facilitate its use clinically. The paper provides the technological and medical basis for the development and commercialization of a realtime integrated heart sound detection, acquisition and quantification system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]