Evidence of the Sequential Changes of Lung Sounds in COVID-19 Pneumonia Using a Novel Wireless Stethoscope with the Telemedicine System

• Published in: Internal Medicine Vol. 59; no. 24; pp. 3213 - 3216
• Main Authors: Noda, Akinari, Saraya, Takeshi, Morita, Kikuko, Saito, Masaoki, Shimasaki, Teppei, Kurai, Daisuke, Nakamoto, Keitaro, Ishii, Haruyuki
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Japan The Japanese Society of Internal Medicine 15.12.2020; Japan Science and Technology Agency
• Subjects: Auscultation - instrumentation; Case Report; Computed tomography; Coronaviruses; Cough; COVID-19; COVID-19 - diagnosis; COVID-19 - epidemiology; Equipment Design; Female; Fever; Humans; Internal medicine; lung auscultation; Middle Aged; Pneumonia; Respiration; Respiratory Sounds - diagnosis; SARS-CoV-2; Stethoscopes; Telemedicine; Telemedicine - methods; telemedicine system; Thorax; Tomography, X-Ray Computed - methods; wireless stethoscope; COVID-19; telemedicine system; telemedicine; lung auscultation; wireless stethoscope
• ISSN: 0918-2918; 1349-7235; 1349-7235
• DOI: 10.2169/internalmedicine.5565-20

A 60-year-old woman was admitted to our hospital due to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pneumonia with a chief complaint of persistent low-grade fever and dry cough for two weeks. Thoracic computed tomography demonstrated a crazy paving pattern in the bilateral lower lobes. In a COVID-19 ward, we used a novel wireless stethoscope with a telemedicine system and successfully recorded and shared the lung sounds in real-time between the red and green zones. The fine crackles at the posterior right lower lung fields changed from mid-to-late (day 1) to late inspiratory crackles (day 3), which disappeared at day 5 along with an improvement in both the clinical symptoms and thoracic CT findings.