Digital stethoscope: a new era of auscultation

The article reviews modern electronic and digital stethoscopes. The publications of the last 10 years were analyzed using eLIBRARY.ru, PubMed, Google Scholar with “аускультация” (“auscultation”), “электронный стетоскоп” (“electronic stethoscope”), “цифровой стетоскоп” (“digital stethoscope”), and “телемедицина” (“telemedicine”) keywords. New ways to auscultate using digital stethoscopes were considered. Products from the most popular manufacturers were briefly characterized. Improved functionality and versatility of a digital stethoscope (ability to evaluate heart, lung, bowel, and other organ sounds), noise reduction and sound filtering make digital stethoscopes an even more attractive tool. If these challenges are met, a digital stethoscope will undoubtedly become an indispensable tool in the diagnosis, monitoring and treatment of diseases and in patient self monitoring. Telemonitoring of patients with cardiovascular and respiratory diseases is a promising area of application for modern models of digital stethoscopes. Auscultation is especially important to evaluate changes during long term follow up, for early detection of complications and decompensated chronic non infectious diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, myocardial infarction, etc.