Phonocardiography, enhanced by digital stethoscopes and AI, offers a promising objective method for detecting pathological heart murmurs and valvular heart diseases, particularly useful for screening in primary care and resource-limited settings.
Cardiac auscultation remains a fundamental componentof bedside cardiovascular examination. However, traditionalauscultation using an acoustic stethoscope is highly dependent onclinician expertise and subjective interpretation. Phonocardiography(PCG), the graphical recording of heart sounds and murmurs, providesan objective method for analyzing cardiac acoustic signals. With theemergence of digital stethoscopes, advanced signal processing, andartificial intelligence (AI)–based sound analysis, PCG has significantlyregained attention as a diagnostic adjunct in contemporarycardiology.Recent studies have demonstrated promising diagnosticperformance of PCG-based algorithms, with reported sensitivitiesranging from 80–92% and specificities of 75–90% for detectingpathological heart murmurs and certain valvular heart diseases. Whileechocardiography remains the gold standard for structural cardiacevaluation, PCG offers advantages in screening, documentation, andremote monitoring, particularly in primary care and resource-limitedsettings.This review discusses the principles of phonocardiography, currentclinical applications, diagnostic performance, integration with artificialintelligence, and its potential role alongside echocardiography inmodern clinical practice.
SIBI DAS (Tue,) studied this question.