Biological examination apparatus, biological-information analysis method, and computer program

A biological information analysis method, comprising:

• a larynx portion displacement detection step for detecting a change in a distance between two positions in a larynx portion of a subject caused by movement of a thyroid cartilage in an up-and-down direction and a back-and-forth direction at the time of swallowing;
• a swallowing sound detection step for detecting a swallowing sound when the subject swallows as biological information;
• a processing step for processing detection data detected in the larynx portion displacement detection step and the swallowing sound detection step;
• and
• a display step for displaying data processed in the processing step,
• wherein, in the processing step,
• an up-and-down movement component associated with an up-and-down movement of the thyroid cartilage and a back-and-forth movement component associated with a back-and-forth movement of the thyroid cartilage are extracted from a fitting result of fitting a model function modeling a swallowing movement to distance information based on the detection data detected by the larynx portion displacement detector, and two-dimensional or three-dimensional trajectory data indicating the movement of the thyroid cartilage in the up-and-down direction and the back-and-forth direction simultaneously in one trajectory graph is generated based on the extracted up-and-down movement component and back-and-forth movement component, and
• identification display data that makes it possible to identify, on the trajectory graph, which of an outbound path of a movement path according to elevation and forward movement of the thyroid cartilage and a return path of the movement path according to a backward movement and a downward movement of the thyroid cartilage has a peak of swallowing sound in a series of up-and-down and back-and-forth movement paths of the thyroid cartilage at the time of swallowing is generated based on the detection data from the swallowing sound detector.

A computer program

• causing a computer to execute:
• a larynx portion displacement detection step for detecting a change in a distance between two positions in a larynx portion of a subject caused by movement of a thyroid cartilage in an up-and-down direction and a back-and-forth direction at the time of swallowing;
• a swallowing sound detection step for detecting a swallowing sound when the subject swallows as biological information;
• a processing step for processing detection data detected in the larynx portion displacement detection step and the swallowing sound detection step;
• and
• a display step for displaying data processed in the processing step,
• wherein, in the processing step,
• an up-and-down movement component associated with an up-and-down movement of the thyroid cartilage and a back-and-forth movement component associated with a back-and-forth movement of the thyroid cartilage are extracted from a fitting result of fitting a model function modeling a swallowing movement to distance information based on the detection data detected by the larynx portion displacement detector, and two-dimensional or three-dimensional trajectory data indicating the movement of the thyroid cartilage in the up-and-down direction and the back-and-forth direction simultaneously in one trajectory graph is generated based on the extracted up-and-down movement component and back-and-forth movement component, and
• identification display data that makes it possible to identify, on the trajectory graph, which of an outbound path of a movement path according to elevation and forward movement of the thyroid cartilage and a return path of the movement path according to a backward movement and a downward movement of the thyroid cartilage has a peak of swallowing sound in a series of up-and-down and back-and-forth movement paths of the thyroid cartilage at the time of swallowing is generated based on the detection data from the swallowing sound detector.