STUDY OBJECTIVES To survey emergency care providers about their stethoscope-cleaning measures and to determine the correlation between these measures and the extent of Staphylococcus carriage. DESIGN Prospective cross-sectional analysis. SETTING University-affiliated community hospital ED. PARTICIPANTS One hundred fifty health care providers, comprising emergency medicine house staff and ...

OBJECTIVE To develop recommendations for positioning the second-generation pacing esophageal stethoscope for transesophageal atrial pacing in patients positioned prone (P), right lateral decubitus (RLD), and left lateral decubitus (LLD). DESIGN Prospective; patients assigned consecutively. SETTING Tertiary and university hospitals. PARTICIPANTS Thirty (10 in each position group) adult pat...

CONTEXT The stethoscope is a universal tool in the hospital that is in direct contact with many patients and can therefore be a vector in the dissemination of bacterial infections. OBJECTIVE To research the presence of bacteria, fungi and yeast on the stethoscope diaphragm and the resistance of bacteria to antimicrobial drugs. DESIGN Descriptive, prospective, non-controlled. SETTING A ter...

Cardiac auscultation is the examination of heart by listening to sound produced through a stethoscope. Heart sounds can provide information about functioning valve condition as well structural abnormalities heart. However, it needs intensive training for mastering. The objective work was develop an algorithm signal classification applied computer-assisted digital in order identify pathological ...