Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med., Vol 150, No. 5, 11 1994, 1291-1297.
Clinical utility of chest auscultation in common pulmonary diseases
PE Bettencourt, EA Del Bono, D Spiegelman, E Hertzmark and RL Murphy Jr
Faulkner Hospital, Pulmonary Department, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130.
In this investigation we applied the techniques of lung sound mapping and
time-expanded wave-form analysis to four common diseases that involve the
lung: interstitial pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), chronic obstructive pulmonary
disease (COPD), congestive heart failure (CHF), and pneumonia (Pn). Twenty
subjects were studied in each group. We also studied 15 subjects without
evidence of lung disease. Differences in timing, character, and location
were observed, which allowed separation among these groups. Multiple
logistic regression models were created and tested by the bootstrap method.
Regression models correctly classified 68 and 79% of subjects. Area under
the receiver operating curve ranged from 0.96 for IPF and CHF to 0.80 for
COPD. We conclude that auscultatory differences exist among common
pulmonary conditions and that statistical models based on auscultatory data
perform well in predicting diagnostic categories.
