seismocardiografie

Seismocardiography is a noninvasive method for recording the mechanical vibrations generated by the beating heart that propagate to the chest wall. It uses accelerometers or piezoelectric sensors placed on the anterior chest to measure tiny movements caused by cardiac activity.

The recorded signals reflect chest wall motion associated with the cardiac cycle. When the heart contracts and relaxes, it creates accelerations that are captured as a seismocardiographic waveform. Signals are typically analyzed together with electrocardiography and sometimes phonocardiography to identify cardiac events, such as valve openings and closures, and phases of systole and diastole. The waveform can provide information about the timing and relative strength of mechanical heart activity.

Seismocardiography has been studied for research and clinical use as a noninvasive means of cardiovascular monitoring. It has potential for ambulatory and wearable applications, enabling high temporal resolution assessment of cardiac timing, contractility, and responses to changes in preload or afterload. Its use extends to investigating cardiac function in various populations and settings, although it is not yet standard in routine clinical practice.

Advantages of SCG include its portability, low cost, and high temporal resolution, along with the ability to capture mechanical aspects of cardiac function not present in electrical measurements alone. Limitations involve sensitivity to motion and respiration, variability with sensor placement and body habitus, and the need for sophisticated signal processing to extract specific cardiac events. Early work relied on piezoelectric sensors, with modern approaches increasingly leveraging MEMS accelerometers and advanced analytics.