Abstract
Advances in the field of biomedical instrumentation have resulted in the development of new types of biomedical instruments. This project deals with the design and construction of a new type of stethoscope simply called “Electronic stethoscope”. Test was carried out to compare the performance of designed circuits with values obtained from published literature and by theoretical computation. The overall gain of the system was 1.8, 0.2 units greater than the computed value. The pre-amplifier stage has a measured gain of 10.6dB while the filter circuit, power amplifier stage and LED driver stage have the gains of 5.1dB, 36.7dB and 12.5dB respectively. The designed electronic stethoscope provided a good amplification of heart sounds, which was converted into electrical energy using a transducer. The amplified signal was converted back to a louder sound and an optical display. . The values of the heart rate obtained using the working system was within the range of theoretically stated values. This electronic stethoscope beats the limitations on the conventional diagnostic stethoscope.
Keywords: Design, electronic stethoscope, medical practice