Friday, March 18, 2011

Two Types Of Stethoscopes

Stethoscopes have been used for a long time to listen to the many sounds of the body. They are a totally innate piece of equipment for all doctors and health care practitioners and the examination of any patient will be incomplete without having a stethoscope. Stethoscopes can be used for people along with animals. Most commonly, this gadget is used to listen to the heart beats. But this really is only a small aspect of what they're intended for.

You will find basically 3 forms of stethoscopes that are manufactured for the use of doctors and other healthcare practitioners. Included in this are:

Traditional acoustic Stethoscopes: This is the most often used stethoscope, that features a standard chest piece, hollow rubber tubes, and twin ear pieces. These have whats called a dual chest piece given that they have a small bell cup on one aspect along with a diaphragm on the other half. Nevertheless, with such stethoscopes can generate problems when hearing faint noises or with these in places where there can be a loud atmosphere.

Electronic Stethoscopes: A much modern form of stethoscope, an electronic stethoscope is able to boost body sounds for the benefit of the listener. The acoustic waves are converted into digital signals, which are next increased and processed for enhanced hearing. As a result, these kinds of stethoscopes are fantastic for weak sounds and will be easily employed in any type of surroundings. Considering the surge in the use of the electronic stethoscopes it isn't impossible to say they'll one day be the most commonly encountered variety used.

Finally is the fetal stethoscope. Its unique structure enables you to pay attention to fetal cardiovascular system tones. These stethoscopes are also known as fetoscopes or pinards. On the other hand, with the breakthroughs in technological innovation a replacement for fetal stethoscopes continues to be developed. That is termed as the electronic digital sonaid and is now frequently used by physicians across the world.

And so recognized is a stethoscope that it is regarded with both the doctor or registered nurse.

Littmann Stethoscope

In 1963, Harvard School Of Medicine Professor David Littmann invented a stethoscope that would revolutionize the world of medical auscultation. Knowing that a 'one size fits all' approach to stethoscope technology and the proven fact that the basic stethoscope design had changed little in over a hundred years, he set out to find a solution. He engineered features that caused it to be more comfortable for someone to use the stethoscope. The quality of sound produced by the new design made such a profound step up from what had gone before that in 1967 the 3M corporation acquired Dr Littmann's company, Cardiosonics Inc.

As a world leader in health care products 3M went on to further improve and cultivate the Littmann stethoscope and and in 1978 worked very closely with leading figures in the medical profession to produce the 3M Littmann Cardiology Stethoscope. This became known as the "cardiologists dream stethoscope" and had both a dual tube design and the increased low frequency sound capability.

In the 1980's the engineers at 3M developed whats now known as the tunable diaphragm. The one pitfall with Dr. Littmann's brand-new design had been that you still had to lift the chest piece off the patient in order to switch between diaphragm and bell modes, this was eliminated with the tunable diaphragm. Accordingly the chest piece need not be moved to become optimized for different sound frequencies. This represented a significant breakthrough in the area of auscultation and in addition the fact that low frequency sounds were getting increased by a diaphragm as opposed to a bell meant that amplification was much greater and much clearer.

Technology is now enough where electronic stethoscopes are able to detect bodily sounds and letting them be heard up to 24 times higher. With all the digital versions you can download assessments onto a computer for additional evaluation. The Littmann distinctive line of stethoscopes enjoy a huge lead in relation to their competitors due to quality and first rate innovations.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

How To Use A Stethoscope

Learning how to use a stethoscope isn't difficult. Stethoscopes are most commonly employed to take note of cardiac, lung and intestinal noises. They're not difficult to use, but understanding the interpretation of what you pick up takes much ability and training.

How To Use A Stethoscope - Clean off the ear buds before inserting the stethoscope into your ears, particularly if other people share it or perhaps you don't often use it. In the hospital, earpieces are easily wiped with alcohol prep swabs.

How To Use A Stethoscope - Hold the chest piece between your palms to warm it prior to placing it on the person's chest. Thirty seconds is generally long enough to remove the chill.

How To Use A Stethoscope - Once you have the ear pieces comfortably in the ear pathways, tap the diaphragm very gently with your finger tip to determine if the chest piece is indexed. If it's a dual head chest piece you will know if it is indexed once you clearly hear the tap of your finger against which ever side you're needing to use, either the bell or diaphragm side. If you don't hear your finger touching then rotate the chest piece till it clicks.

Grip the chest piece in between your middle and index fingers to give firm connection with the skin. To minimize external noises, avoid coming in contact with or rubbing the tubing or chest piece against clothes, bed covers or hair.

Simply position the diaphragm or bell directly above the portion of the system you wish to listen to, or auscultate.

When not being used it is better to store your stethoscope by allowing it to hang from the headset in order to avoid kinking the tubing.

Littmann 3200 Electronic Stethoscope

The Littmann 3200 Electronic Stethoscope brings together the advanced audio quality of the Littmann Model 3100 electronic stethoscope and adds the capability to record sound. With a liquid crystal display screen that a lot of information, this stethoscope has pushed the technological boundaries. With the auto on feature the 3200 Electronic Stethoscope is ready when you are.

The 3200 Electronic Stethoscope exhibits the heart rate which is displayed after 5 seconds and up-dates every 2 seconds and also shows the volume that allows you to amplify the heart and lung sounds up to 24 times. The LCD screen also features battery life which gives audible alerts when the battery is beginning to get low (operates on a single AA battery). The Mode feature informs you if the Electronic Stethoscope 3200 is in bell or diaphragm function whilst the backlight makes it ideal for low light conditions.

It is always ready to be used and it remembers your personal settings, so you won't have to reset it each time.. This remarkable stethoscope eliminates up to 85% of the background noises to help you concentrate on your assessment.

The Littmann Model 3200 electronic stethoscope also allows you to record an auscultation sound track for up to 20 seconds. This sound track can then be sent via Blue tooth to the software provided with the stethoscope. You can then use the Blue tooth technology to transmit the sounds to your PC, which allows for further analyze them, save it to patients records or shared with co-workers for further analysis or discussion. The software has many tools that will help you evaluate your examination.

A Universal serial bus adapter comes with the 3200 Electronic Stethoscope to allow easy downloads available if needed

The Zargis StethAssist Heart and lung Sound Visualization Software is included, and has too many capabilities to talk about them all in this article..

This newer unit electronic stethoscope by Littmann has a larger enhanced sensor that has the most up-to-date in noise reduction technology for the highest quality acoustics on the market today.

Littmann Cardiology III

The Littmann Cardiology III Stethoscope is deemed to be a top-of-the-range model by a massive amount of health care professionals, within the Littmann product line. The Littmann III Stethoscope is nearly totally hand-assembled and the design and style and components used offer the very best in quality of sound, especially in the low-frequency ranges.

A specially designed small hole in the diaphragm's center enhances the acoustical qualities of the Cardiology III. This stethoscope gains from a patented tunable diaphragm on each side of chest piece. The big side can be used for adult patients while the smaller side is very helpful for pediatrics or thin individuals, around bandages and carotid assessment.

As a consequence of the tunable diaphragm the examiner can detect both low and high frequencies by differing the pressure without having to lift the chest piece from the patient. Some of the advanced features of the Littmann Cardiology III stethoscope are its trademarked soft sealing ear tips, 2 in 1 tube design for much better acoustics, anatomically correct headset, and of course Littmann's popular non chill diaphragm and rim. With the provided bell sleeve you can easily convert the pediatric side into a standard bell.

The tunable technology used in the construction of this Littmann III Stethoscope provides perfect usefulness, since that when listening to low-frequency sounds there are minor increases in amplitude. The Littmann Cardiology III is versatile. It is a favorite of cardiologist's and nurses as well because of the dual diaphragm design that enables you to examine pediatric and adult patients alike.

There's also a five year warranty incorporated with every purchase, so what have you been waiting around for? Get a Littmann Cardiology III now!