An Innovative Approach to Improve Diagnostic of Arterial Stenosis Using Phonoangiography Signal

Carotid artery stenosis (CAS) is a major risk factor for brain stroke, necessitating reliable and non-invasive diagnostic methods. This study focuses on the development of an efficient experimental protocol to assess artery stenosis severity using Phonoangiography (PAG) signal detected through an acoustic sensor. The proposed experimental protocol involves recording PAG signals from an approximate design of human vascular system with varying stenosis severity. Specifically, the PAG signal reflects acoustic sounds resulting from turbulent fluid flow caused by simulated 3D model of arterial stenosis. By analyzing the PAG signal in time and frequency based methods, the degree of stenosis (DOS) is qualitatively evaluated. Measured experimental results demonstrated a clear correlation in frequency distribution between DOS condition and with corresponding PAG signal. The proposed method holds promise as a low-cost tool for early CAS detection compared to conventional methods, warranting further validation studies to confirm its effectiveness and clinical applicability.