Coronary artery disease (CAD) occurs when the arteries to the heart (the coronary arteries) become blocked by deposition of plaque, depriving the heart of oxygen-bearing blood. This disease is arguably the most important fatal disease in industrialized countries, causing one-third to one-half of all deaths in persons between the ages of 35 and 64 in the United States. Despite the fact that early detection of CAD allows for successful and cost-effective treatment of the disease, only 20% of CAD cases are diagnosed prior to a heart attack. The development of a definitive, noninvasive test for detection of coronary blockages is one of the holy grails of diagnostic cardiology. One promising approach to detecting coronary blockages noninvasively is based on identifying acoustic signatures generated by turbulent blood flow through partially occluded coronary arteries. In fact, no other approach to the detection of CAD promises to be as inexpensive, simple to perform, and risk free as the acoustic-based approach. Although sounds associated with partially blocked arteries are easy to identify in more superficial vessels such as the carotids, sounds from coronary arteries are very faint and surrounded by noise such as the very loud valve sounds. To detect these very weak signals requires sophisticated signal processing techniques. This review describes the work that has been done in this area since the 1980s and discusses future directions that may fulfill the promise of the acoustic approach to detecting coronary artery disease.

中文翻译：

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冠状动脉疾病的声学检测。

当心脏的动脉（冠状动脉）由于斑块的沉积而被阻塞，从而剥夺了心脏的含氧血液时，就会发生冠状动脉疾病（CAD）。可以说，这种疾病是工业化国家中最重要的致命疾病，在美国，导致35至64岁的人死亡的三分之一至二分之一。尽管事实上，尽早发现CAD可以成功且经济有效地治疗该疾病，但只有20％的CAD病例是在心脏病发作之前被诊断出来的。确定性的，无创性的检测冠状动脉阻塞的方法的开发是诊断心脏病学的一项重要成就。一种无创地检测冠状动脉阻塞的有前途的方法是基于识别通过部分阻塞的冠状动脉的湍流血流产生的声学信号。实际上，没有其他方法可以检测到CAD，就像基于声学的方法一样便宜，易于执行且无风险。尽管在较浅的血管（如颈动脉）中易于识别与部分阻塞的动脉相关的声音，但冠状动脉的声音却非常微弱，并被诸如非常大的瓣膜声音之类的噪声所包围。要检测这些非常弱的信号，需要复杂的信号处理技术。