Dr Scott Rickard, Director of UCD CASL
UCD CASL researcher Dr Scott Rickard is leading a team that is developing new stethoscope technology, capable of detecting hidden heart problems.
The multi-disciplinary research team led by Dr Rickard (UCD School of Electrical, Electronic and Mechanical Engineering), which includes an expert in volcanic lava flows (Prof Chris Bean, UCD School of Geological Sciences) as well as heart specialists, is working on new a multichannel stethoscope and audio analysis technology. It is hoped that the device will lead to more rapid diagnosis of coronary artery disease and that eventually such diagnoses will be carried out in GPs' surgeries.
Detecting heart disease just by listening is challenging as the number and complexity of sounds coming from the body make it difficult to reliably determine the cause. The research team are developing methods which can listen to specific points inside the chest using a 6 microphone stethoscope.
Dr Rickard explains: ‘On the screen you can see the lub, dub sounds of your heart, a little peak for the lub and a little peak for the dub evolve across the screen. Hidden between these peaks are the sounds that can tell a great deal about heart disease.’
The device is now being tested by a team of cardiologists led by Dr Martin Quinn at St Vincent's University Hospital in Dublin. The research team are collecting data to bolster the scientific credentials of the new stethoscope technology.
Dr Rickard hopes that if the technology can be shown to work, then it should be powerful enough and robust enough to diagnose a variety of heart conditions from any GP’s office that has the device.
"They listen to your heart and they should be able to diagnose a myriad of different things, not just coronary heart disease but congenital heart defects that go unnoticed simply because people aren't listening.“
Over 5,000 people suffer sudden cardiac death in Ireland each year, of which 60 to 80 are under 35 years of age.
