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The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md., has signed an exclusive option with Zargis Medical Corp., Princeton, N.J., a spin-off of Siemens Corporate Research, to license heart diagnostic technologies developed jointly by researchers at APL and the Hopkins School of Medicine (SOM) in Baltimore.

This strategic agreement presents a significant opportunity for APL to collaborate with Zargis in extending their joint capabilities to address areas of cardiac acoustic research.

The option includes two technologies: a system and method — based on algorithms — for diagnosing pathological heart conditions; and the Cardiac Auscultatory Recording Database (CARD). Together, these technologies form an automated system able to detect abnormal heart sounds and distinguish between innocent heart murmurs that may be confused with pathological murmurs in a patient. The system is expected to lessen the need for costly referrals to cardiologists and use of echocardiography to identify pathologic conditions.

Experienced cardiologists are able to distinguish pathologic from innocent heart murmurs with a high degree of accuracy using a simple stethoscope,” says Dr. W. Reid Thompson, a pediatric cardiologist at the SOM. “We are trying to emulate the essential aspects of this auditory recognition sequence in a computerized algorithm that uses data from a standard electronic stethoscope, so that general practitioners can achieve the same level of accuracy.”

The technologies provide a screening tool for heart ailments. By applying advanced signal processing techniques (informed by the contents of a database of more than 6,000 recordings from over 1,000 individuals) to recordings of a patient’s heart sounds, health care workers — including physicians, home care providers and other caregivers who do not have the skill of a cardiologist — can distinguish between innocent and pathological conditions of the heart.

This work is a natural follow-on to signal processing techniques and algorithms we’ve developed for detecting and classifying submarines,” says APL physicist Scott Hayek, who developed the algorithms and methodology for evaluating heart sounds. “The collaboration with the School of Medicine has been key in effectively redirecting our defense experience.”

“Access to the CARD data will enable us to demonstrate that we can detect various normal and abnormal heart sounds from a large, prerecorded clinical database using our technology,” says Shahram Hejazi, chief executive officer of Zargis. “We look forward to joint R-and-D efforts with the Hopkins team and applying our capabilities in commercializing the results.”

Commercial development of the technologies could lead to products that non-specialists can use to screen populations for heart abnormalities, particularly in rural settings, where advanced diagnostic procedures are either unavailable or too costly. And other applications could include pulmonary diagnostic devices, telemedicine services, and medical education tools.