慢性阻塞性肺疾病(Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease，COPD)，是一種以持續性的氣流受限為特徵的阻塞性肺疾病。其主要症狀呼吸短促、咳嗽和咳痰。肺炎（Pneumonia），是指肺部出現發炎的症狀，主要是肺泡受到影響。肺炎常見的症狀包括咳嗽、胸痛及呼吸困難。降低這些疾病的發病率和死亡率的方法是檢測早期症狀的病理變化，例如這些病症產生的異常呼吸音，異常呼吸音包括爆裂音(Crackle)、哮鳴音(wheeze)、支氣管呼吸音(Bronchial breath sound)、喘鳴(Stridor)，是早期診斷和監測肺部疾病的重要臨床生物標誌物。本研究提供一個可攜式的裝置，該裝置由多個高精度加速度計(Accelerometer) 組成，使用多個傳感器放置在身體上對肺音進行縱向的評估，通過陣列式的擺放，比較來自多個位置的測量值來研究振動波的性質，將有助於了解呼吸時胸部的震動分布。透過加速度計的高精度同步率、線性頻率響應和高信號質量以解決多個位置的訊號同步與振動問題。利用這些加速度傳感器的高靈敏度檢測對由於潛在肺部病變而發生的高頻振動，相較於傳統的聽診器藉由空氣的震動傳導，這樣的方式能隔絕外界雜音的干擾，並同時獲取多個位置的訊號。這樣的多通道系統將允許檢測慢性阻塞性肺疾病與其他肺部疾病的異常呼吸音，未來能透過其去量測實際病人的呼吸音，以期達到早期疾病的診斷和識別的目的。;Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease is an obstructive lung disease characterized by persistent airflow limitation. Its main symptoms are shortness of breath, cough and expectoration. Pneumonia refers to the symptoms of inflammation in the lungs, mainly the alveoli are affected. Common symptoms of pneumonia include cough, chest pain, and difficulty breathing. The way to reduce the morbidity and mortality of these diseases is to detect the pathological changes of early symptoms, such as abnormal breath sounds produced by these diseases, abnormal breath sounds include crackle, wheeze, bronchial breath sound and stridor are important clinical biomarkers for early diagnosis and monitoring of lung diseases. This study provides a wearable device, which is composed of multiple high-precision accelerometers, using multiple sensors placed on the body to conduct longitudinal assessment of lung sounds. Studying the properties of vibration waves by taking measurements at each location will help to understand the distribution of vibrations in the chest during breathing. Through the high-precision synchronization rate, linear frequency response and high signal quality of the accelerometer, the signal synchronization and vibration problems in multiple positions can be solved. Utilize the high sensitivity of these accelerometers to detect high-frequency vibrations due to potential lung lesions, compared to traditional stethoscopes that conduct vibrations through air, this method can isolate the interference of external noise and simultaneously acquire multiple positions signal. Multichannel system will allow the detection of abnormal breath sounds in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and other lung diseases. In the future, it can be used to measure the breath sounds of actual patients in order to achieve the purpose of early diagnosis and identification of diseases.
