Dynamics of the sounds caused by partially occluded femoral arteries in dogs

Previous studies have indicated that partially occluded arteries produce sounds due to turbulence. If these sounds from the coronary arteries could be detected externally, they would provide a simple approach to the detection of coronary artery disease. To confirm the hypothesis that coronary stenosis produces detectable acoustic correlates, sounds caused by a controlled occlusion of the femoral artery of dogs were detected and analyzed using both the fast Fourier transform (FFT) and the autoregressive (AR) methods. The femoral artery was chosen, since its size and flow approximate those of coronary arteries in humans. The poles of the AR spectra and the power ratios of different sections of the FFT and AR spectra were used to differentiate the degree of the stenosis. The results showed that high frequency acoustical power between 200 and 800 Hz is associated with the turbulence produced by the partially occluded femoral arteries of the dogs. Using the AR method, high acoustic power above 200 Hz increased when the degree of the occlusions increased. The poles and power ratios of the AR spectra differed according to the degree of stenosis. However, the high frequency acoustical power above 200 Hz did not increase above the 85% occlusion.