Analysis of heart sounds using the wavelet transform

Describes the application of the wavelet transform (WT) to the characterisation of sounds recorded from patients diagnosed as suffering from aortic valvular disease. Due to the multiresolution analysis performed by the WT, it is highly applicable to the analysis of the complex sounds generated over a whole cardiac cycle. Results clearly show that the WT can be used to quantitatively describe sounds produced during the cardiac cycle. The comparison of these quantitative time and frequency characteristics in normal and pathological cases offers definite diagnostic potential.