History Inventors Stethoscope, Stethoscope Definition and Purpose

Stethoscope (Greek: stethos, chest and skopeein, check) is an acoustic medical device for checking the sound in the body. He used to hear heart sounds and breathing, although he also used to hear the intestine and blood flow in the arteries and the "vein".

Stethoscope found in France in 1816 by René-Théophile-Hyacinthe Laennec. It consists of empty wooden tube. It is said he invented the stethoscope so that he would not have put his ear on her breasts France. It is unclear whether Laennec try to avoid it, or to avoid the embarrassment of the patient. However, people say that "Necessity is the mother of invention."

The most common acoustic stethoscope is used, and operated by channeling the sound from the chest, through an empty tube containing the-air, to the listener's ear. Section "chestpiece" usually consists of two sides that can be diletakaan in the patient's body to clarify the sound; sebuaah diaphgram (plastic disc) or "bell" (empty bowl). When diaphgram placed on the patient, body sounds vibrate the diaphgram, creating acoustic pressure waves that run through the tube into the listener's ear. When the "bell" is placed in the patient's body getarakn skin directly produce acoustic pressure wave that runs into the listener's ear. Bell's low frequency sound channel, whereas channel diaphgram higher sound frequencies. Two-sided stethoscope was invented by Rappaport and Sprague in the early 20th century. The problem with acoustic stethoscopes is the sound level is very low, making diagnosis difficult.

Electronic stethoscopes overcome the low sound levels by strengthening the body's voice. Right now, there has been some companies offer electronic stethoscopes, and maybe in a few years, the electronic stethoscope will be more common than an acoustic stethoscope.

Stethoscope is used as a tool to diagnose certain diseases. Stethoscope to a particular voice channel and eliminate the other voices. Before the stethoscope was found, doctors put his ear close to the patient's body in hopes to hear something.

Stethoscope is often regarded as a symbol of physician work, because doctors often seen or depicted with a stethoscope hanging around his neck.

Stethoscope is also used by mechanics to isolate specific sounds from the machine for diagnosis.