Assessment of breath sounds at birth using digital stethoscope technology.

Background: Digital stethoscope technology has been used to record and study normal and abnormal breath sounds in the paediatric population. There may be scope to utilise this technology to describe breath sound characteristics in the transitioning newborn. Method(s): A commercially available digital stethoscope and acquisition software was used to record breath sounds of term infants born via normal vaginal delivery (NVD) and elective caesarean section (CS) at one minute and two hours of life. Recordings had a bandpass filter applied and analysed using MATLAB. Power spectrum profiles, total power (TP), peak width (PW), spectrum slope (SL) and area under the regression line (PLN) were extracted and compared between delivery modes. Result(s): Sixty-one newborns were studied. Mean (SD) gestation and weight of 32 NVD infants was 38 (0.9) weeks and 3165.6 (447.1) grams, and 29 elective CS infants was 38 (0.9) weeks and 3222.1 (297.1) grams. 83.6% of 1 min and 100% of 2-h recordings were analysable. Mean difference in spectral features between CS and NVD groups at 1-min: TP 1.56 dB/Hz (p < 0.001), PW 4.14 Hz (p < 0.001), PLN 412.82 dB (p = 0.002), SL 0.63 dB/octave (p = 0.003). Mean difference at 2 h: TP 0.99 dB/Hz (p = 0.004), PW 1.54 Hz (p = 0.01), PLN 200.56 dB (p = 0.03), SL 0.34 dB/octave (p = 0.01). Conclusion(s): It is feasible to use digital stethoscope technology to assess breath sounds in the transitioning newborn. We were able to depict a difference in breath sound characteristics between infants delivered via elective CS and NVD. This may be associated with differential lung fluid clearance.