Stethoscope

Stethoscope
Modern stethoscope
Classification	Medical device
Industry	Medicine
Application	Auscultation
Inventor	René Laennec
Invented	1816 (208 years ago) (1816)

Stethoscope Sounds

Recorded auscultation of a healthy 16 year old girl's heart, as heard with a digital stethoscope on the tricuspid valve area.

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The stethoscope is a medical device for auscultation, or listening to internal sounds of an animal or human body. It typically has a small disc-shaped resonator that is placed against the skin, with either one or two tubes connected to two earpieces. A stethoscope can be used to listen to the sounds made by the heart, lungs or intestines, as well as blood flow in arteries and veins. In combination with a manual sphygmomanometer, it is commonly used when measuring blood pressure.

Less commonly, "mechanic's stethoscopes", equipped with rod shaped chestpieces, are used to listen to internal sounds made by machines (for example, sounds and vibrations emitted by worn ball bearings), such as diagnosing a malfunctioning automobile engine by listening to the sounds of its internal parts. Stethoscopes can also be used to check scientific vacuum chambers for leaks and for various other small-scale acoustic monitoring tasks.

A stethoscope that intensifies auscultatory sounds is called a phonendoscope.