STM Article Repository

Ayurvedic acharyas employ sound examination (Shabda Pariksha) as diagnostic parameter for diagnosing the illnesses. In order to detect a specific medical state of a certain system, Acharya Charaka in Vimansthana suggested to investigate the bowel sounds, joint crepitation, and other unique sounds generated in the body like cough and hiccups. In addition to this, ancient Ayurvedic academics have provided descriptions of number of medical states, such as Tamak shwasa (bronchial asthma), which results in audible wheezing. Kussmaul's breathing, Maha Shwasa, causing a loud, audible wheeze. The whooping cough (Krukaj Kasa) causing the distinctive whoop sound, while laryngitis, Swarabheda, causes hoarseness of voice. The well trained doctors could detect these coughing's qualitative auditory variations with ease. Around the world, there are ongoing efforts to digitally capture and analyze the cough sound. A future acoustic-based laboratory diagnosis of cough should be based on the examination of coughing-related waveforms and spectrograms generated from computerized respiratory sound analysis. Further, Ayurveda holds the belief that each person has a distinctive voice that is determined by the dominance of the doshik body constitution. It has been seen and concluded that sound examination may be utilized as a diagnostic tool to identify diseases and body phenotypes as described in Ayurveda.