Microwave Stethoscope, A New Noninvasive Multiple Vital Signs Sensor: Human Clinical Trials

In this paper, preliminary human clinical trial results for the Microwave Stethoscope (MiSt) are presented. Benchmarking results using a Food and Drug Administration approved medical device, Propaq LT, have shown the feasibility of accurately detecting the heartbeat and respiration rates from a single measurement using the MiSt. Additionally and more importantly, the MiSt allows the non-invasive capturing of internal patient data such as the changes in the lung water content as well as the accurate heartbeat waveform that correlates very well with the electrocardiogram (ECG). All these encouraging results suggest that the MiSt has capabilities to monitor multiple vital signs including heart rate and respiration rate, and replace multiple sensors used to monitor heart rate and respiration rate.