Time-frequency analysis of the second cardiac sound in phonocardiogram signals.

The paper is concerned with the analysis of the phonocardiogram signals (PCG) in the time-frequency domain. Three techniques are studied and evaluated in PCG signal analysis. These are the short time Fourier transform (STFT), the Wigner distribution function (WD) and the continuous wavelet transforms (CWTs). The analysis is first carried out on the second cardiac sound (S2) in order to show the aptitude of each method in distinguishing the internal components of this sound. The results we obtain show that the STFT cannot detect the two internal components of S2 (A2 and P2, respectively, the aortic and pulmonary components). The WD can provide time-frequency characteristics of S2, but with insufficient diagnostic information: the two components are not accurately detected and appear to be only one component. It is found that the CWT (it can also provide the time-frequency characteristic of S2) is capable of detecting its two components, A2 and P2, allowing therefore the measurement of the delay between them. This delay, called the split, is very important in the diagnosis of many pathological cases, as it is emphasized in the results we obtain by applying the CWT on different pathological cases (mitral stenosis, pulmonary stenosis and atrial septal defect).