Abstract
Aortic valve stenosis (AS) is a major valve disease in elderly; it is diagnosed using imaging techniques, such as transthoracic echocardiography. Although auscultation is the first diagnostic step in routine practice, it is auditory-dependent and difficult to quantify. Thus, research on cardiac sound analysis is in progress. This study was conducted to evaluate the possibility of determining AS severity using a phonocardiographic device (AMI-SSS01), including the experience of using the device. Twenty-one patients with AS and fifteen healthy participants were tested. There was a correlation between AS severity determined by transthoracic echocardiography and the maximum amplitude of the phonocardiogram obtained by AMI-SSS01 (r = 0.762). Maximum amplitudes were significantly different between the healthy participants and patients with mild AS group and moderate and severe AS group (p < 0.01). The sensitivity and specificity of AMI-SSS01 in detecting moderate or severe AS were 1.00 and 0.83, respectively. Furthermore, six users of the AMI-SSS01 were surveyed about the device’s usability, and it received average scores above 4 out of 5 for ease of use, clarity of operation, and portability. These findings suggest that the device is easy to use, straightforward to operate, and highly portable. Although further studies including other cardiac diseases and a larger number of cases are needed, this study suggests that AMI-SSS01 may be used to determine AS severity in a simple manner.
