Body sound to be music to doctors’ ears
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When an older doctor puts his stethoscope to your chest he may hear ‘lub-dub lub-dub’, but, soon, younger medicos may hear it go ‘tak-dina-din’.
Experts in the city are looking to record the heart sounds and lung and tummy noises in patients with various ailments and convert them into Carnatic beats to teach medicos to diagnose problems like leaking heart valves, heart muscle problems or tumours in the lungs.
“The organs of our body, especially the heart, lungs and digestive system, make rhythmic sounds when they are working well.
However, even when there is something wrong with them, they make a regular pattern of irregular noises that can be recognised by the trained ear,” explains Dr S. Elango, vice-president, Indian Public Health Association.
While it takes years of experience for a specialist to realise that something is wrong with your heart by listening to its beat, this CD of Carnatic beats, corresponding to different abnormal organ rhythms, will help medical students learn and remember the sounds in a short time. This will help them pick up diseases early and also ask for the right tests.
Similarly, the lungs also make distinct sounds, explains Dr Elango.
As the ever-busy maestro Ilayaraja could not help him, Dr Elango is looking for a music school or composer to collaborate with him in his project.
He can be contacted at selango52@gmail.com.
“I would love to have such a CD of body noises — the science of auscultation — but how far it will aid today’s technology-dependent medicos remains to be seen,” says gastric surgeon, Dr J.S. Rajkumar, who also plays the guitar.
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