|  | Healthcare Industry | General Healthcare Industry

Types of Stethoscopes

A stethoscope is a device used by medical professionals to listen to the internal sounds of the body. Stethoscopes are used for humans as well as animals. The most common sound listened to by a stethoscope is the heart. Stethoscopes can also be used to listen to the intestines, arteries and veins. There are five types of stethoscopes: fetal, recording, acoustic, noise reduction and electronic.

  1. Acoustic

    • Acoustic stethoscopes are familiar, and they function by using a chest piece with hollow tubes that go to the listener's ears. These types of stethoscopes are most commonly used. The chest piece has two sides, a diaphragm and a bell. The diaphragm creates high-frequency sounds, while the bell creates low-frequency sounds.

    Electronic

    • Electronic stethoscopes electronically amplify body sounds. It is predicted that the electronic stethoscope will begin to lead the race in the most commonly used stethoscopes in the future. Electronic stethoscopes used sound waves, which are converted to electrical signals that are amplified and provide much clearer and louder sounds.

    Noise Reduction

    • Noise reduction stethoscopes are stethoscopes built with an ambient noise filtering system. In electric stethoscopes, you can get noise reduction in the Littmann 3000 and Thinklabs DS32A models. Acoustic noise reduction is available in the Trimline Puretone brands.

    Recording

    • Recording stethoscopes are stethoscopes with a feature that allows you to use a recording device with the stethoscope in order to record direct audio output. This allows the sounds to be recorded using a direct audio feature for later examination. Many health professionals find this very useful when providing evaluations and consultations to patients with certain conditions.

    Fetal

    • Fetal stethoscopes are sometimes referred to as a fetoscope or a pinard, after Adolphe Pinard, a French doctor. This type of stethoscope is shaped like a very small trumpet and is positioned against a pregnant woman's abdomen in order to listen to the heartbeat of the fetus.

General Healthcare Industry - Related Articles