title: Multi-channel audio-based estimation of the Pre-Ejection Period.
abstract: Systolic time intervals (STI) have significant diagnostic and prognostic value to assess the global cardiac function. Presently, STIs are regarded as a promising tool for long-term follow-up of patients with chronic cardiovascular diseases. Heart sound has proven to be a valuable approach for STI estimation, in particular for the Pre-Ejection Period (PEP). However, since the optimal auscultation site varies from individual to individual, as well as with the position of the body, its application in single-channel and fixed auscultation site setups poses practical difficulties. Hence, we extend our previous work on PEP estimation to a multi-channel sound acquisition setup, where signal redundancy is exploited. A channel selection method is proposed and the best channel is selected for PEP estimation. As a preliminary study, the devised algorithms were evaluated with respect to echocardiography reference on a set of 236 heartbeats collected from 8 healthy subjects in two sound auscultation sites. The channel selection approach led to 8.4% estimation error decrease, in comparison to a single-channel approach. Current results support our assumption that a multi-channel audio-based strategy can be applied to assess STI in personal health application scenarios.
authors.forename: R P
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Paiva
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sapata
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Henriques
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Quintal
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Baptista
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gonçalves
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Carvalho
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D001314:Auscultation / Q000379:methods*; D004452:Echocardiography; D006347:Heart Sounds / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D013599:Systole / Q000502:physiology*