Lung Sound Quality Screening via Breathing Pause Segmentation

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing lung sound analysis systems struggle to accurately diagnose heart failure in non-specialist settings due to the difficulty in determining the quality of lung sounds, particularly when they are of poor quality, leading to potential overlooking of analysis processing.

Innovation Solution

A lung sound analysis system that includes an acquisition means for time-series acoustic signals, a determination means for identifying breathing pause phases, a dividing means for separating signal periods, a calculation means for quality assessment based on intensity ratios, and a warning means for alerting on calculated indices, ensuring accurate analysis even with poor-quality lung sounds.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Ease of operation

If automatic determination of abnormal sounds is performed in lung sound analysis systems, then diagnostic capability is improved for non-specialists, but the system cannot accurately assess lung sound quality leading to overlooked poor-quality analyses

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvediagnostic capability for non-specialistsVSAvoidlung sound quality assessment accuracy

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of operationVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs self-assessment of lung sound quality by automatically calculating the index value based on intensity ratios between pause phase and other phases, enabling the system to evaluate its own input quality without requiring external specialist judgment

Inventive Principle:

Principle #25Self-service

Solution Approach 2:

The system provides feedback regarding lung sound quality through the calculated index value and warning mechanism, allowing operators to understand the quality status of acquired lung sounds and take appropriate actions

Inventive Principle:

Principle #23Feedback

2Productivity

If lung sound analysis is performed without quality assessment, then analysis processing is simplified and faster, but poor-quality lung sounds are overlooked leading to inaccurate diagnosis

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveanalysis processing efficiencyVSAvoiddiagnosis accuracy

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSMeasurement precision

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary quality assessment by calculating the index value before proceeding with abnormal sound detection, ensuring that poor-quality lung sounds are identified and handled appropriately before main analysis

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The index value calculation acts as an intermediary step between lung sound acquisition and abnormal sound detection, providing a quality metric that mediates the decision-making process for subsequent analysis

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Data Source

PatentUS20260026770A1Lung sound analysis system

Publication Date: 2026.01.29 NEC CORP

AI summary

A lung sound analysis system includes: an acquisition unit that obtains time-series acoustic signals including lung sounds from a heart failure patient; a determination unit that identifies the pause phase of the patient's breathing; a dividing unit that separates the time-series signals into those during the pause phase and those during other phases, based on the determination; a calculation unit that computes an index value representing the quality of the signals outside the pause phase, using the intensity of signals from both phases after separation; and a warning unit that issues alerts based on the calculated index value. The system supports medical decision making for healthcare professionals monitoring heart failure patients.