Although protocols for assessing patient risk have been developed, diagnostic and prognostic tools are mainly based on expensive and inaccessible imaging methods such as radiography, ultrasound, or computed tomography (CT). so, Need to develop simpler forecasting tools and is easily accessible, allowing health care providers to identify patients who have developed or are at risk of serious disease. In this way, patient triage and early intervention can be facilitated even at home or in primary care centres. One study analyzing the severity of COVID-19 is coughing.
In this sense, a team led by IBEC and Hospital Del Mar, in collaboration with the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC), CIBER-BBN and CIBERES, has carried out a study based on the analysis and interpretation of coughing sounds in the early stages of the disease. The method is considered a potential, simple and easy-to-use predictive tool for assessing the risk of severe pneumonia.
‘Smartphone’ records coughs of COVID-19 patients
The research is from Smartphone records voluntary coughs of 70 patients with SARS-CoV-2 infectious disease Within the first 24 hours after you arrive at the hospital.he acoustic analysis These recordings produced by IBEC enable detection of Significant differences between patient voices based on severity Respiratory pathology, previously confirmed by imaging studies and the need for supplemental oxygen.
The results show that the analysis can be used to classify patients with covid-19 as mild, moderate or severe and to monitor patients with persistent covid.The work was carried out using data collected at Hospital del Mar from April 2020 to May 2021, and the results have been published in the journal European Respiratory Journal Open Research.
Cough frequency is key parameter in identifying possible pneumonia in COVID-19 cases
Raimon Jané, Professor at UPC, Principal Investigator at IBEC and CIBER-BBN, He leads IBEC’s Biomedical Signal Processing and Interpretation (BIOSPIN) group, which develops methods and algorithms for acoustic analysis of cough signals acquired by smartphones.
Use called mixed linear model, The team found that five parameters based on sound frequency differed significantly in the coughs of patients with different disease severity and progression of pneumonia. Therefore, these differences may reflect gradual changes in the respiratory system of patients with covid-19.
“While acoustic cough analysis methods have been proposed in the past to diagnose respiratory diseases, we wanted to take it a step further and Specifically explore the relationship between cough acoustic characteristics and different levels of pneumonia severity “In covid-19 patients,” details Jané, senior co-author of the study.
Models that can be used for other respiratory diseases
The study’s authors explained that coughing could be used both to detect patients with severe Covid-19 early, to monitor its progression and even to assess possible complications from a distance. However, it is now necessary to continue using data from more patients to confirm the results of this cross-sectional study, which allows cough analysis to be used as a diagnostic tool in patients with covid-19 or other respiratory diseases.
For this reason, doctors Joaquim Gaia, His conclusions may be useful, said Dr. John Pneumonia, chief emeritus of the Pulmonology Service, a researcher at Del Mar Hospital Research Institute and a senior co-author of the study. “To assist in the timely identification and isolation of covid-19 patients and facilitate the implementation of appropriate medical care and control measures in areas with insufficient medical infrastructure or in emergencies”.
Another factor worth noting is that although the study focuses on covid-19, it opens the door to using the model for other respiratory diseases.
Reference article: Differences in cough acoustic characteristics with pneumonia severity in COVID-19 patients: a cross-sectional study