Abstract
Sounds and murmurs have long been employed to qualitatively diagnose cardiovascular disease. However, quantitative diagnosis has been hindered by the lack of understanding of the sound generation and transmission mechanisms. Clinical phonoangiographic studies have shown that simple assumptions about low frequency sound transmission through tissue surrounding an artery are inadequate for obtaining meaningful quantitative diagnosis. Therefore, a theory is developed which relates internal turbulent flow in constricted peripheral arteries to the sound observed at the surface of the skin by means of assumptions of similarity and local axial homogeneity of the internal turbulence. It is found that the spectrum of pressure at the wall of the artery is related to the spectrum of the pressure at the surface of the skin by a filtering factor approximately proportional to ω-2. This arises not because of frequency dependent volumetric absorption in the surrounding medium, as with ultrasound, but because of the manner in which stochastic signals add when observed.
Similar content being viewed by others
Literature
Batchelor, G. K. 1967. “The Theory of Homogeneous Turbulence.” London: Cambridge University Press.
Clinch, J. M. 1969. “Measurements of the Wall Pressure Field at the Surface of a Smooth-Walled Pipe Containing Turbulent Water Flow.”J. Sound Vib.,9, 398–419.
Corcos, G. M. 1964. “The Structure of the Turbulent Pressure Field in Boundary-Layer Flow.”J. Fluid Mech.,18, 353–378.
Fredberg, J. J. 1970. Sound Generation by Turbulence at Stenoses of Human Arteries, M.S. Thesis, M.I.T.
Fung Y. C. 1965.Foundations of Solid Mechanics. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Garabedian, P. R. 1967.Partial Differential Equations. New York: John Wiley.
Gurll, N. M.I.T. Clinical Research Center, to be published.
Golia, E. and N. A. Evans. 1973. “Flow Separation Through Annular Constrictions in Tubes.”Exp. Mech.,13, 157–162.
Johansen, F. C. 1929. “Flow Through Pipe Orifices at Low Reynolds Numbers.”Proc. Roy. Soc., London A,126, 231–245.
Lees, R. S. and C. F. Dewey, Jr. 1970. “Phonoangiography: A New Noninvasive Method for Studying Arterial Disease.”Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci.,67, 935–942.
McDonald, D. A. 1960.Blood Flow in Arteries. London: Edward Arnold, p. 69.
McKusick, V. A. 1958.Cardiovascular Sounds. Baltimore: Williams & Williams Co.
Mollo-Christensen, E. 1967. “Jet Noise and Shear Flow Instability Seen From an Experimenter's Viewpoint.”J. Appl. Mech., Paper No. 67-APM-C.
Morse, P. M. and K. U. Ingard. 1968.Theoretical Acoustics. New York: McGraw-Hill, p. 313.
Robbins, S. L. and I. Bentov. 1967. “The Kinetics of Viscous Flow in a Model Vessel.”Lab. Invest.,16, 864–874.
Schlichting, H. 1955.Boundary Layer Theory. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Smith, R. L. 1972. “Thrombus Production by Turbulence.”J. Appl. Physiol.,32, 2.
Willcutt, R. B. 1968. “Angiography: Incidence of Adverse Reactions in 282 Studies.”J. Am. Osteopath Assoc.,67, 1414–1422.
Willmarth, W. W. and F. W. Roos. 1965. “Resolution and Structure of the Wall Pressure Field Beneath a Turbulent Boundary Layer.”J. Fluid Mech.,22, 81–94.
Yellin, E. L. 1966. “Hydraulic Noise in Submerged and Bounded Liquid Jets.”Biomed. Fluid Mech. Symp. ASME, April, pp. 209–221.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Fredberg, J.J. Pseudo-sound generation at atherosclerotic constrictions in arteries. Bltn Mathcal Biology 36, 143–155 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02458599
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02458599