Angela:
I've had some experience with this. From what I can tell, the frequencies
having the most importance for auscultation of most body sounds is < 125 Hz.
High frequencies are not important to hear body sounds, but are a problem
when low frequency hearing is poor (poor figure ground I think). Thus, a
person can have a modest (25 dB loss) in the audiometric lows, and have a
more moderate loss below 125 Hz - and be functionally impaired using a
stethoscope. To my knowledge, there are no norms for this - Maybe some out
there knows something more?
David Zapala
In a message dated 2/6/00 11:09:22 AM Central Standard Time, EARTODAY at aol.com
writes:
> Has anyone ever seen a description or analysis of the sounds typically
> listened to via a stethoscope? What is the frequency content and
intensity
> of these sounds? I am often at a loss in counselling physicians and
nurses
> about how their particular hearing losses interact with the sounds they
> typically must listen to and use for diagnostic purposes. Wonder about
this
>> as a liability issue also - when do we inform health practitioner that
> given
> their losses, certain stethoscope tasks should not be performed for the
> safety of the patient? Angela Loavenbruck
>---
