Exploratory Study of the Diagnostic Potential of an Innovative Thoracic Vibration Analysis Technique

Plain-language summary

Heart and lung disease are two major causes of hospitalisation and mortality in France (4-8). Together, these two diseases affect several million people in France, either acutely or chronically. They represent a major public health problem in social and economic terms. Diagnosis of these disorders is often delayed, with acute decompensation preceded by a period of frustrating, non-specific clinical signs (9-12), which delay their discovery. Screening for these conditions in their early stages or diagnosing them in their acute form is crucial, but remains difficult because it requires multiple investigations that are costly and time-consuming (biology, radiology, ECG, etc.). The difficulty of diagnosis, the progressive profile and the ever-increasing frequency of these conditions (environmental and socio-economic factors) have considerably altered the landscape of medical emergencies and contributed to their difficulty. The availability of a non-invasive technique capable of diagnosing both cardiac and pulmonary disorders without the help of an expert, without direct contact with the patient and without requiring his or her active participation, would be a major advance. Technological innovations in all fields have always helped to improve patient care.The recent emergence of telemedicine and POCT(US) connected objects (point of care testing, point of care ultrasound)(13,14) is a good illustration of this. A new technique using ultrasound, developed by the Langevin Institute (Surface Camera Motion) and supported by the start-up Austral Diagnostics, makes it possible, without direct contact with the subject, to record the propagation of thoracic vibrations induced by the functioning of the heart pump and respiratory mechanics.Consequently, any anomaly in the functioning of these organs can cause a change in the thoracic vibration regime and its propagation. This completely new technique for exploring thoracic vibrations provides a particularly rich signal that has not yet been explored. Under these conditions, the signatures associated with cardiac and/or pulmonary pathologies are not yet perfectly defined.Furthermore, the diagnostic potential of this new technique in the early or acute phases of cardiopulmonary pathologies remains to be assessed. In this prospective study, we propose to explore the signatures produced by this signal in various cardiac and respiratory pathologies. The aim is To identify the discriminating criteria of the SMC signal that enable cardiac and pulmonary pathologies to be detected compared with a group of healthy subjects.

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