stethoscope
/ˈstɛθəskəʊp
/noun
A medical instrument for listening to the action of someone’s heart or breathing, typically having a small disc-shaped resonator that is placed against the chest, and two tubes connected to earpieces.I knelt down by Phyllis, took out my stethoscope to establish my medical credentials, and listened knowingly to her chest....
- For example, the doctor may listen to the patient's chest with a stethoscope, to determine how well the airways are working.
- Your doctor will also listen to the baby's chest with a stethoscope.
Derivatives
stethoscopic
- This study showed a 1% incidence of an ‘ominous’ fetal heart rate trace on admission testing and, of these 10 infants, one died three hours after admission, without stethoscopic auscultation detecting any fetal compromise.
- Following a 5-minute rest period, a trained technician assessed baseline BP and HR measures with a series of stethoscopic measurements taken concurrently with the ambulatory monitor.
- Later, he embarked on a revised edition of this epochal work with a masterful correlation of stethoscopic sounds and diseases of the chest documented by postmortem findings.
stethoscopically
stethoscopist
stethoscopy
Origin
Early 19th century: from French stéthoscope, from Greek stēthos 'breast' + skopein 'look at'.