Application of phonocardiography on preterm infants with patent ductus arteriosus

Abstract The patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) is a prevalent disease in case of preterm newborns. The assessment of some parameters of the PDA with simple and noninvasive measurement equipment, such as phonocardiography (PCG), could be of great significance. In this paper two features of the heart sound have been investigated. The first one is the sensitive identification of murmur related to PDA. This was achieved by calculating the average maximal late systolic envelope value (LSEV max ), which was significantly greater in case of preterms with PDA ( p