Signal processing methods for upper airway and pulmonary dysfunction diagnosis.

Methods and algorithms for the analysis of acoustical pulmonary signals and their application to pulmonary diagnosis are examined. The analysis of breath and adventitious sounds, voice sounds and percussion, and snoring and stridor is considered. It is shown that analysis of the acoustic characteristics of the thorax by sophisticated signal processing methods shows promise for assisting clinical diagnosis. The technique is simple, quantitative, noninvasive, and objective. In some cases, especially in pediatrics, it closes a gap between the simple stethoscope and expensive invasive methods.