JP2019017844A - Respiratory sound processing device, respiratory sound processing method and computer program - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a respiratory sound processing device that can process relating to a respiratory sound with a small processing load, and to provide a respiratory sound processing method and a computer program.MEANS: A respiratory sound processing device (12) includes: a determination part (123) for determining whether a temporal increment amount of a sound volume of a respiratory sound is equal to or larger than a first threshold; and an output part (124) for outputting a prescribed signal when the temporal increment amount is determined to be equal to or larger than the first threshold.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to a respiratory sound processing apparatus and a respiratory sound processing method for performing processing related to acquired respiratory sounds, and a technical field of a computer program that causes a computer to execute the respiratory sound processing method.

  An example of such a breathing sound processing apparatus is described in Patent Document 1. Specifically, Patent Document 1 compares electric signal patterns output by a plurality of microphones, each of which can collect a body sound of a subject, and the electric signal pattern output by any of the microphones is different. There is described a respiratory sound processing device that determines that an abnormality has occurred in a living body and issues an alarm when the pattern deviates by a predetermined amount or more from an electric signal pattern output from a microphone.

JP 2014-050614 A

  In the respiratory sound processing device described in Patent Document 1 described above, it is necessary to compare patterns of electrical signals output from a plurality of microphones with each other. For this reason, there arises a technical problem that the processing load of the respiratory sound processing device increases as compared with a respiratory sound processing device that does not require comparison of electrical signal patterns output from a plurality of microphones.

  Examples of problems to be solved by the present invention include the above. It is an object of the present invention to provide a respiratory sound processing device, a respiratory sound processing method, and a computer program that can perform processing related to respiratory sounds with a relatively small processing load.

  According to a first aspect of the respiratory sound processing device of the present invention, a determination unit that determines whether or not an increase amount of the volume of the respiratory sound during a predetermined period is equal to or greater than a first threshold value, and the increase amount is the first threshold value An output unit that outputs a predetermined signal when it is determined as above.

  According to a first aspect of the respiratory sound processing method of the present invention, a determination step of determining whether or not an increase in the volume of the respiratory sound during a predetermined period is equal to or greater than a first threshold, and the increase is equal to the first threshold. And an output step of outputting a predetermined signal when it is determined as described above.

  The first aspect of the computer program of the present invention causes a computer to execute the first aspect of the respiratory sound processing method of the present invention described above.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the living body monitoring apparatus of the present embodiment. FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a flow of an operation for acquiring a respiratory sound. FIG. 3 is a table showing an example of the data structure of the volume data stored in the storage device. Each of FIG. 4A to FIG. 4C is a plan view showing a display example of respiratory volume. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a flow of an operation for determining whether or not the state of the living body is abnormal. Each of FIG. 6A and FIG. 6B is a graph showing the respiratory volume during a predetermined period. FIG. 7 is a table showing volume data used for calculating the increase in respiratory volume over time during a predetermined period. FIG. 8 is a plan view showing a display example of an increase in respiratory sound.

  Hereinafter, description will be given of embodiments of the respiratory sound processing device, the respiratory sound processing method, and the computer program.

(Embodiment of respiratory sound processing apparatus)
<1>
The embodiment of the respiratory sound processing device determines whether or not the increase amount of the volume of the respiratory sound during a predetermined period is equal to or greater than a first threshold value, and determines that the increase amount is equal to or greater than the first threshold value. And an output unit that outputs a predetermined signal.

  According to research by the inventors of the present application, it has been found that when an abnormality occurs in the respiratory sound, the volume of the respiratory sound increases as compared with a case where no abnormality occurs in the respiratory sound. Specifically, when an abnormal sound (for example, secondary noise) is mixed in the respiratory sound, the volume of the respiratory sound becomes larger than the volume of the respiratory sound that does not include the abnormal sound due to the mixing of the abnormal sound. It has been found. For this reason, according to the embodiment of the respiratory sound processing device, it is possible to substantially determine whether or not an abnormality has occurred in the living body based on the increase in the volume of the respiratory sound. Specifically, the embodiment of the respiratory sound processing device determines that an abnormality has occurred in the living body when the increase amount of the volume of the respiratory sound is determined to be greater than or equal to the first threshold, An output signal (for example, a warning signal described later) can be output.

  As described above, the embodiment of the respiratory sound processing device substantially determines whether or not an abnormality has occurred in the living body without comparing the patterns of the electrical signals output from the plurality of respiratory sound sensors (for example, microphones) with each other. Can be determined automatically. Therefore, the embodiment of the respiratory sound processing apparatus performs processing related to respiratory sound (here, processing for determining whether the increase amount is equal to or greater than the first threshold and outputting an output signal) with a relatively small processing load. It can be carried out.

<2>
In another aspect of the embodiment of the respiratory sound processing device described above, the determination unit determines whether the increase amount during one predetermined period is equal to or greater than one first threshold and the one predetermined period. Determines whether the increase amount during another predetermined period that is at least partially different is greater than or equal to the other first threshold, and the output unit determines whether the increase amount during the one predetermined period is The predetermined signal is output when it is determined that it is equal to or greater than one first threshold and / or that the amount of increase during the other predetermined period is equal to or greater than the other first threshold.

  According to this aspect, the respiratory sound processing device can determine whether or not an abnormality has occurred in the living body with higher accuracy based on an increase in the volume of the respiratory sound during a plurality of at least partially different periods. It is.

<3>
In another aspect of the embodiment of the respiratory sound processing device described above, the determination unit further determines whether or not the volume is equal to or higher than a second threshold value, and the output unit includes (i) the increase amount. When it is determined that the volume is greater than or equal to the first threshold and the volume is greater than or equal to the second threshold, the predetermined signal is output, and (ii) the increase is determined to be greater than or equal to the first threshold. Even if it is a case, when it determines with the said sound volume not being more than the said 2nd threshold value, the said predetermined signal is not output.

  Considering that the volume of the breathing sound increases when an abnormality occurs in the breathing sound as described above, if there is a correspondingly large volume of the breathing sound, there is a relative possibility that the breathing sound is abnormal. Expensive. On the other hand, if the volume of the breathing sound itself is not so high, there is a possibility that no abnormality has occurred in the breathing sound. Therefore, even if the increase in the volume of the breathing sound is equal to or greater than the first threshold, if the volume of the breathing sound itself is not so high (that is, not equal to or greater than the second threshold), no abnormality has occurred in the breathing sound. (As a result, no abnormality has occurred in the living body). Therefore, according to this aspect, since the volume of the respiratory sound itself is referred to in addition to the amount of increase in the volume of the respiratory sound, the respiratory sound processing apparatus can more accurately determine whether or not an abnormality has occurred in the living body. Can be determined.

<4>
In another aspect of the embodiment of the respiratory sound processing device described above, the increase amount is an increase amount from a minimum value of the volume during the predetermined period.

  According to this aspect, the respiratory sound processing device can determine with high accuracy whether or not an abnormality has occurred in the living body based on the increase amount with reference to the minimum value.

<5>
In another aspect of the embodiment of the respiratory sound processing device described above, the predetermined signal includes a warning signal for warning a biological abnormality.

  According to this aspect, the respiratory sound processing device can appropriately warn that an abnormality has occurred in the living body.

(Embodiment of respiratory sound processing method)
<6>
In the embodiment of the respiratory sound processing method, a determination step of determining whether or not an increase amount of the volume of the respiratory sound during a predetermined period is equal to or greater than a first threshold value, and it is determined that the increase amount is equal to or greater than the first threshold value. And an output step for outputting a predetermined signal.

  According to the embodiment of the respiratory sound processing method, the library used by the above-described embodiment of the respiratory sound processing apparatus can be appropriately generated. Incidentally, in response to other aspects that can be adopted by the embodiment of the respiratory sound processing apparatus, the embodiment of the respiratory sound processing method may also adopt the other aspect.

(Embodiment of computer program)
<7>
An embodiment of a computer program causes a computer to execute the embodiment of the respiratory sound processing method described above.

  According to the embodiment of the computer program, it is possible to suitably enjoy the same effect as that enjoyed by the above-described embodiment of the respiratory sound processing method. Incidentally, in response to another aspect adopted by the embodiment of the respiratory sound processing method, the embodiment of the computer program may adopt the other aspect.

  The operation and other advantages of the embodiment of the respiratory sound processing device, the respiratory sound processing method, and the computer program will be described in more detail in the following examples.

  As described above, the embodiment of the respiratory sound processing apparatus includes a determination unit and an output unit. The embodiment of the respiratory sound processing method includes a determination step and an output step. An embodiment of a computer program causes a computer to execute the embodiment of the respiratory sound processing method described above. Therefore, it is possible to perform processing relating to breathing sound with a relatively small processing load.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of a respiratory sound processing device, a respiratory sound processing method, and a computer program will be described with reference to the drawings. In the following, description will be given using the biological sound monitoring apparatus 1 to which an embodiment of the respiratory sound processing device, the respiratory sound processing method, and the computer program is applied.

(1) Configuration of Biological Monitoring Device 1 First, the configuration of the biological monitoring device 1 of the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a living body monitoring apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the living body monitoring apparatus 1 monitors the state of a living body. Specifically, the living body monitoring apparatus 1 monitors whether or not an abnormality has occurred in the living body (that is, the state of the living body is abnormal). Notify the user. In order to monitor the state of the living body, the living body monitoring apparatus 1 is a specific example of a plurality of (four in the example shown in FIG. 1) respiratory sound sensors 11 and the “respiratory sound processing apparatus” in the above-described embodiment. A CPU (Central Processing Unit) 12, a storage device 13, a display 14, an operation device 15, and a speaker 16 are provided.

  Each respiratory sound sensor 11 acquires (that is, detects) a respiratory sound of a living body. As an example of the respiratory sound sensor 11, a microphone that directly detects vibrations of air caused by respiratory sounds and a diaphragm vibration that transmits vibrations of a medium (for example, a patient's body surface) caused by respiratory sounds are detected. And a vibration sensor for detecting respiratory sounds. The plurality of respiratory sound sensors 11 are preferably attached to different parts of the living body. A respiratory sound signal that is a detection result of each respiratory sound sensor 11 is output from each respiratory sound sensor 11 to the CPU 12.

  The CPU 12 controls the overall operation of the biological monitoring apparatus 1. Particularly in the present embodiment, the CPU 12 performs a volume calculation unit 121, a difference calculation unit 122, and “determination” in the above-described embodiment as processing blocks that are logically realized in the CPU 12 by the CPU 12 executing a computer program. Determination unit 123 that is a specific example of “part” and a warning unit 124 that is a specific example of “output unit” in the above-described embodiment. The operations of the sound volume calculation unit 121, the difference calculation unit 122, the determination unit 123, and the warning unit 124 will be described in detail later with reference to FIG. 2 and the like, but the outline thereof will be briefly described below. The volume calculation unit 121 calculates the volume of the breathing sound indicated by the breathing sound signal (hereinafter referred to as “breathing volume”) based on the breathing sound signal. The difference calculation unit 122 is an increase amount of the respiratory volume during a predetermined period based on the respiratory volume calculated by the volume calculation unit 121 (that is, an increase amount of the respiratory volume over time, and hereinafter referred to as “respiration sound increase amount”). ) Is calculated. The determination unit 123 determines whether or not the increase in respiratory sound calculated by the difference calculation unit 122 is greater than or equal to a predetermined threshold value TH1. When the determination unit 123 determines that the increase in respiratory sound is equal to or greater than the threshold value TH1, a warning signal for notifying that an abnormality has occurred in the living body is output to the display 14 and a warning sound is output from the speaker 16 To do.

  The storage device 13 stores volume data indicating the respiratory volume calculated by the volume calculation unit 121. The volume data stored in the storage device 13 is appropriately referred to when the difference calculation unit 122 calculates the increase amount. The storage device 13 includes, for example, a hard disk and a solid state drive.

  The display 14 can display a desired display object (for example, an image or a moving image) under the control of the CPU 12. In particular, when a warning signal is output from the CPU 12 (particularly, the warning unit 124), the display 14 displays a display object indicating that an abnormality has occurred in the living body.

  The operation device 15 is a device that can be operated by a user of the biological monitoring apparatus 1 (for example, a medical worker such as a doctor or a nurse). For example, the user uses the operating device 15 to perform an operation for setting the operation content of the biological monitoring device 1. The operating device 15 includes, for example, at least one of a mouse, a keyboard, and a touch panel attached to the display 14.

  The speaker 16 generates a warning sound when an abnormality occurs in the living body.

(2) Operation of the living body monitoring apparatus 1 Next, the operation of the living body monitoring apparatus 1 of this embodiment will be described. In the present embodiment, the biological monitoring apparatus 1 performs in parallel an operation for acquiring a respiratory sound and an operation for determining whether or not an abnormality has occurred in the biological body based on the acquired respiratory sound. Therefore, in the following, an operation for acquiring a breathing sound and an operation for determining whether or not an abnormality has occurred in a living body will be described in order.

(2-1) Operation for Acquiring Respiratory Sound First, an operation for acquiring a respiratory sound will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a flow of an operation for acquiring a respiratory sound.

  As shown in FIG. 2, each of the plurality of respiratory sound sensors 11 acquires a respiratory sound (step S11). Each respiratory sound sensor 11 outputs a respiratory sound signal as a detection result to the CPU 12. The respiratory sound signal is an analog signal indicating the intensity of the respiratory sound (that is, the amplitude level corresponding to the volume) as a waveform on the time axis.

  Thereafter, the volume calculation unit 121 calculates the respiratory volume based on the respiratory sound signal output by each respiratory sound sensor 11 (step S12). At this time, the sound volume calculation unit 121 calculates the respiration sound volume separately for each respiration sound sensor 11. That is, the volume calculation unit 121 calculates the volume of the respiratory sound acquired by the first respiratory sound sensor 11 based on the respiratory sound signal output from the first respiratory sound sensor 11, and the second respiratory sound sensor 11. Calculates the volume of the respiratory sound acquired by the second respiratory sound sensor 11 based on the respiratory sound signal output from the second respiratory sound sensor 11,... Based on the respiratory sound signal output by the fourth respiratory sound sensor 11. The respiratory sound volume acquired by the fourth respiratory sound sensor 11 is calculated.

The volume calculation unit 121 may adopt an existing operation as an operation for calculating the respiratory volume based on the respiratory sound signal. Hereinafter, an example of the operation for calculating the respiration volume based on the respiration sound signal will be described. The volume calculation unit 121 converts a respiratory sound signal, which is an analog signal, into a digital signal. As a result, the volume calculation unit 121 acquires a finite number of sample values (that is, sample values indicating the volume). Thereafter, the volume calculation unit 121 calculates an RMS value that is a root mean square of sample values during a predetermined respiratory volume calculation period (for example, the period of the latest 10 seconds). That is, if there are N sample values (x ₁ , x ₂ ,..., X _N ) during the breathing volume calculation period, the volume calculation unit 121 determines that the RMS value = ((x ₁ ² + x _2). ² +,... + X _N ² ) / N) The RMS value is calculated using a mathematical formula of ^1/2 . Thereafter, the sound volume calculation unit 121 converts the RMS value into a dB value indicating the respiration volume in units of decibels using a mathematical formula of dB value = 20 × log ₁₀ (RMS value). In this embodiment, at least one of the RMS value and the dB value is used as the respiratory volume.

  Since the respiratory sound signal can be continuously acquired, the sound volume calculation unit 121 continuously calculates the respiratory sound volume. For example, the sound volume calculation unit 121 newly calculates a respiration volume every time a respiration volume calculation period elapses (for example, every 10 seconds elapses).

  Thereafter, the storage device 13 stores volume data indicating the respiratory volume calculated by the volume calculator 121 (step S13). The storage device 13 stores volume data so that the stored respiratory sound volume is the volume of the respiratory sound acquired by which respiratory sound sensor 11. Therefore, the storage device 13 stores the respiratory volume after associating the respiratory volume and the sensor ID of the respiratory sound sensor 11 as shown in FIG. 3 showing an example of the volume data stored in the storage device 13. Furthermore, the storage device 13 stores volume data so that the stored breathing volume is the volume of the breathing sound acquired at which date and time. Therefore, the storage device 13 stores the respiratory volume after associating the respiratory volume with the date and time, as shown in FIG. FIG. 3 shows an example of volume data including both the RMS value and the dB value as the respiratory volume. However, the storage device 13 may store volume data including one of the RMS value and the dB value.

  In parallel with storing the volume data in the storage device 13, the display 14 may display the respiratory volume calculated by the volume calculation unit 121. For example, as shown to Fig.4 (a), the display 14 may show a respiration volume using the graph which shows a respiration volume as a waveform on a time-axis. Alternatively, since the plurality of breathing sound sensors 11 are attached to different parts of the living body, the display 14 displays a graph indicating the volume of the breathing sound acquired by a certain breathing sound sensor 11 as shown in FIG. The breathing sound may be displayed in association with the position of the living body from which the breathing sound was acquired. Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 4 (c), the display 14 displays a display object that indicates the level of the volume of the respiratory sound acquired by a certain respiratory sound sensor 11 with the color intensity of the living body from which the respiratory sound is acquired. You may display in relation to a position.

  The processes from step S11 to step S13 described above are repeated until an instruction to end the operation of acquiring the breathing sound is requested from the user using the operating device 15 (step S14).

(2-2) Operation for determining whether or not an abnormality has occurred in a living body Next, an operation for determining whether or not an abnormality has occurred in a living body will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a flow of an operation for determining whether an abnormality has occurred in the living body.

  As shown in FIG. 5, first, the difference calculation unit 122 calculates an increase in respiratory sound (that is, an increase in respiratory volume during a predetermined period) (step S21). When calculating the respiratory sound increase amount, the difference calculation unit 122 calculates the respiratory sound increase amount separately for each respiratory sound sensor 11 as in the case of calculating the respiratory sound volume. That is, the difference calculation unit 122 calculates the increase amount of the respiratory volume detected by the first respiratory sound sensor 11 during a predetermined period, and increases the respiratory volume detected by the second respiratory sound sensor 11 during the predetermined period. ,..., The amount of increase in the respiratory volume detected by the fourth respiratory sound sensor 11 during a predetermined period is calculated.

  The predetermined period is a period whose end time is the current time (that is, the time at which the process of step S21 is performed). For example, the predetermined period may be a period of the past several minutes or several tens of minutes (for example, 30 minutes) from the current time. For example, the predetermined period may be a period from the current time to the past several hours. This predetermined period may be preset by default. The predetermined period may be set by a user instruction via the operation device 15.

  As shown in FIG. 6A, the increase amount of the respiratory volume during the predetermined period is the current time (that is, the end time of the predetermined period) with respect to the minimum value (that is, the minimum value) of the respiratory volume during the predetermined period. The amount of increase in respiratory volume. However, the increase amount of the respiratory volume during the predetermined period may be an increase amount of the respiratory volume at the current time with respect to the respiratory volume at the start time of the predetermined period, as shown in FIG. Alternatively, the increase amount of the respiratory volume during the predetermined period may be an increase amount of the respiratory volume at the current time with respect to the respiratory volume at an arbitrary time during the predetermined period.

  The difference calculation unit 122 calculates the amount of increase in respiratory sound based on the volume data stored in the storage device 122 (particularly, a part of the data indicating the respiratory volume during a predetermined period of the volume data). For example, FIG. 7 shows that, among the volume data, the current time is 10:22:00 and the predetermined period is the past one hour from the current time (that is, 9:22:00 to 10:22:00) Data portion to be referred to by the difference calculation unit 122. The difference calculation unit 122 specifies the minimum value of the respiratory volume during the predetermined period for each respiratory sound sensor 11 from this data portion. Thereafter, the difference calculation unit 122 calculates, for each respiratory sound sensor 11, the amount of increase in the respiratory volume at the current time with respect to the specified minimum value. As a result, the respiratory sound increase amount is calculated for each respiratory sensor 11.

  The increase in respiratory sound calculated by the difference calculation unit 122 is output from the difference calculation unit 122 to the determination unit 123. Thereafter, the determination unit 123 determines whether or not the first abnormal condition regarding the amount of increase in breathing sound calculated by the difference calculation unit 122 is satisfied (step S23). In the present embodiment, as the first abnormal condition, a condition that the increase in respiratory sound calculated by the difference calculation unit 122 is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold value TH1 is used.

  Since the biological monitoring device 1 includes the plurality of respiratory sound sensors 11, the determination unit 123 outputs the same number of increased respiratory sounds as the respiratory sound sensor 11. In this case, the first abnormal condition is that any one of the plurality of respiratory sound increase amounts is equal to or greater than the threshold TH1 (while the remaining respiratory sound increase amount among the plurality of temporal increase amounts is It may be a condition of whether or not it is equal to or higher than the threshold value TH1. Alternatively, the first abnormal condition is that two or more respiratory sound increase amounts among the plurality of temporal increase amounts are equal to or greater than the threshold TH1 (while the remaining respiratory sound increase amount among the plurality of respiratory sound increase amounts is the threshold value). It does not matter whether TH1 or more. Alternatively, the abnormal condition may be a condition that all of the plurality of respiratory sound increase amounts are equal to or greater than the threshold value TH1.

  The first abnormal condition used in step S22 is set in advance by default, but may be set (that is, changed) by a user instruction via the operation device 15.

  The threshold value TH1 is set to an appropriate value so that normal breath sounds and abnormal breath sounds can be distinguished from the magnitude of the increase in breath sounds. Specifically, according to research by the inventors of the present application, it has been found that when an abnormality occurs in the respiratory sound, the respiratory volume increases as compared with a case where no abnormality occurs in the respiratory sound. Specifically, the volume of a breathing sound that contains abnormal sounds (for example, sub-noise) may be larger than the volume of a breathing sound that does not include abnormal sounds due to the mixing of abnormal sounds. It turns out. For this reason, the threshold value TH1 is set to an appropriate value that can identify the difference between a respiratory sound that includes such an abnormal sound and a respiratory sound that does not include the abnormal sound. The threshold value TH1 is set in advance by default, but may be set (or adjusted) according to a user instruction via the operation device 15.

  As a result of the determination in step S22, if it is determined that the first abnormal condition is satisfied (that is, the increase in respiratory sound is equal to or greater than the predetermined threshold value TH1) (step S22: Yes), the respiratory sound is abnormal. Is presumed to occur (that is, an abnormal sound is included). This is because, as described above, when an abnormality occurs in the respiratory sound, the respiratory volume increases. For this reason, it is presumed that some abnormality that causes an abnormality in the breathing sound occurs in the living body. In this case, the warning unit 124 outputs a warning signal for notifying that an abnormality has occurred in the living body to the display 14 (step S23). As a result, a display object (for example, an image or the like) indicating that an abnormality has occurred in the living body is displayed on the display 14. A warning sound is output from the speaker 16.

  On the other hand, as a result of the determination in step S22, if it is determined that the first abnormal condition is not satisfied (that is, the amount of increase over time is not equal to or greater than the predetermined threshold value TH1) (step S22: No), the breathing sound It is estimated that no abnormality has occurred (that is, no abnormal sound is included). In this case, the warning unit 124 does not output a warning signal to the display 14. Further, the warning sound is not output to the speaker 16.

  The processing from step S21 to step S23 described above is repeated until an instruction to end the operation for determining whether or not an abnormality has occurred in the living body is requested from the user using the operating device 15 (step). S24).

(3) Technical Effects As described above, the living body monitoring apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment determines whether or not an abnormality has occurred in the living body by determining whether or not the increase in respiratory sound is greater than or equal to the threshold value TH1. Can be determined. For this reason, the living body monitoring apparatus 1 can determine whether an abnormality has occurred in the living body without comparing the respiratory sounds acquired by the plurality of respiratory sound sensors 11 with each other. Therefore, the living body monitoring apparatus 1 can perform an operation of determining whether or not an abnormality has occurred in the living body with a relatively small processing load.

In addition, the living body monitoring apparatus 1 of the present embodiment can determine whether or not an abnormality has occurred in the living body based on the respiratory sound. For this reason, the living body is based on a parameter that changes so as to become an abnormal value after a respiratory sound abnormality (or biological abnormality) occurs, such as percutaneous arterial blood oxygen saturation (SpO ₂ ). Compared with the biological monitoring apparatus 1 of the comparative example that determines whether or not an abnormality has occurred, it can be determined earlier whether or not an abnormality has occurred in the living body.

(4) Modification
(4-1) First Modification In the above description, the condition that the amount of increase in respiratory sound during a single predetermined period is equal to or greater than the threshold TH1 is used as the first abnormal condition. However, as the first abnormal condition, a condition that the amount of increase in respiratory sound during a plurality of different predetermined periods may be greater than or equal to the threshold value TH1 may be used. For example, a second predetermined period in which the amount of increase in respiratory sound during the first predetermined period (for example, the period of the past 30 minutes from the current time) is equal to or greater than the first threshold TH1-1 and is different from the first predetermined period. A condition that the amount of increase in respiratory sound during (for example, the period of the past one hour from the current time) is equal to or greater than the second threshold TH1-2 may be used as the first abnormal condition. Alternatively, for example, the amount of increase in breathing sound during the first predetermined period is equal to or greater than the first threshold TH1-1, or the amount of increase in breathing sound during the second predetermined period is equal to or greater than the second threshold TH1-2. May be used as the first abnormal condition. Note that the first threshold value TH1-1 may be the same as or different from the second threshold value TH1-2. The same applies to the first abnormal condition relating to the increase in respiratory sound during three or more predetermined periods. That is, the respiratory sound increase amount during the first predetermined period (for example, the period of the past 30 minutes from the current time) is equal to or greater than the first threshold value TH1-1 and / or is different from the first predetermined period. The amount of increase in respiratory sound during a predetermined period of 2 (for example, the period of the past 1 hour from the current time) is equal to or greater than the second threshold value TH1-2,... A condition that the amount of increase in respiratory sound during a predetermined period (for example, a period of the past 2 hours from the current time) that is different from the period is greater than or equal to the Kth threshold TH1-K. May be used as the first abnormal condition. In this case, all of the first threshold TH1-1 to the Kth threshold TH1-K may be the same, or at least one of the first threshold TH1-1 to the Kth threshold TH1-K is the first threshold TH1-K. The threshold value TH1-1 may be different from at least one of the first threshold value TH1-1 to the Kth threshold value TH1-K.

  According to such a first modification, the biological monitoring device 1 can recognize with high accuracy how the respiratory volume changes (that is, increases). For this reason, the living body monitoring device 1 can determine with higher accuracy whether or not an abnormality has occurred in the living body.

  When the condition that the amount of increase in respiratory sound during a plurality of different predetermined periods is equal to or greater than the threshold value TH1 is used as the first abnormal condition, the difference calculation unit 122 increases the respiratory sound during each of the plurality of different predetermined periods. Calculate the amount.

(4-2) The second modification determination unit 123 determines whether or not the first abnormality condition regarding the increase in respiratory sound described above is satisfied in step S22 of FIG. You may determine whether conditions are satisfied. As described above, when an abnormality occurs in the respiratory sound, the respiratory volume increases. Therefore, the condition that the respiratory volume becomes equal to or higher than a predetermined threshold TH2 is an example of the second or higher condition. The threshold value TH2 is set to an appropriate value so that a normal breathing sound and an abnormal breathing sound can be distinguished from the magnitude of the breathing volume, similarly to the threshold value TH1. When the first and second abnormal conditions are used, the warning unit 124 outputs a warning signal when it is determined that both the first abnormal condition and the second abnormal condition are satisfied. On the other hand, the warning unit 124 does not output a warning signal when it is determined that at least one of the first abnormal condition and the second abnormal condition is not satisfied. For example, even if it is determined that the first abnormal condition is satisfied, the warning unit 124 does not output a warning signal when it is determined that the second abnormal condition is not satisfied.

  Considering that the respiratory volume increases when an abnormality occurs in the respiratory sound as described above, if the respiratory volume itself is correspondingly high, the possibility that the respiratory sound is abnormal is relatively high. On the other hand, if the respiratory volume itself is not so high, there is a possibility that no abnormality has occurred in the respiratory sound. For this reason, according to the second modified example, when determining whether or not an abnormality has occurred in the living body, since the respiratory sound volume itself is referred to in addition to the increase in the respiratory sound, the living body monitoring apparatus 1 Whether or not an abnormality has occurred can be determined with higher accuracy. In other words, the occurrence of a situation in which it is erroneously determined that an abnormality has occurred in the living body is suppressed based on the increase in respiratory sound even though no abnormality has actually occurred in the living body.

(4-3) Other Modifications Display 14 may display the amount of increase in respiratory sound calculated by difference calculation unit 122. For example, as shown in FIG. 8, the display 14 displays a display object that indicates the amount of increase in the volume of the respiratory sound acquired by a certain respiratory sound sensor 11 with the color intensity of the living body from which the respiratory sound is acquired. You may display in relation to a position.

  In the above description, the living body monitoring apparatus 1 includes the plurality of respiratory sound sensors 11. However, the biological monitoring apparatus 1 may include a single respiratory sound sensor 11.

  The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and can be appropriately changed without departing from the gist or concept of the invention that can be read from the claims and the entire specification. The apparatus, the respiratory sound processing method, and the computer program are also included in the technical scope of the present invention.

1 Biological Monitoring Device 11 Respiratory Sound Sensor 12 CPU
121 Volume calculation unit 122 Difference calculation unit 123 Determination unit 124 Warning unit

Claims (7)

A determination unit that determines whether or not an increase in the volume of the respiratory sound during the predetermined period is equal to or greater than a first threshold;
And an output unit that outputs a predetermined signal when it is determined that the increase amount is equal to or greater than the first threshold value. The determination unit determines whether or not the amount of increase over time during one predetermined period is equal to or more than one first threshold and during another predetermined period that is at least partially different from the one predetermined period. Determining whether the amount of increase over time is equal to or greater than the other first threshold;
The output unit is configured such that the amount of increase over time during the one predetermined period is greater than or equal to the first threshold and / or the amount of increase over time during the other predetermined period is greater than or equal to the other first threshold. The respiratory sound processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined signal is output when it is determined as being. The determination unit further determines whether or not the volume is greater than or equal to a second threshold value,
The output unit outputs (i) the predetermined signal when it is determined that (i) the amount of increase over time is equal to or greater than the first threshold and the volume is equal to or greater than the second threshold; Even when it is determined that the amount of increase over time is greater than or equal to the first threshold value, the predetermined signal is not output when the volume is determined not to be greater than or equal to the second threshold value. The respiratory sound processing apparatus according to claim 1 or 2. The respiratory sound processing device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the time-dependent increase amount is an increase amount from a minimum value of the volume during the predetermined period. The respiratory sound processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the predetermined signal includes a warning signal for warning a biological abnormality. A determination step of determining whether or not the amount of increase in volume of breathing sound over time is equal to or greater than a first threshold;
An output step of outputting a predetermined signal when it is determined that the amount of increase with time is equal to or greater than the first threshold value. A computer program for causing a computer to execute the respiratory sound processing method according to claim 6.

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