Acute, serious, powerful… The type of cough presented by patients could be a way of predicting the severity of Covid-19, according to Spanish researchers.
The discoveries around Covid are inexhaustible. This time, researchers from the Institute of Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) and the Hospital del Mar have discovered that the sound of Covid patients coughing could predict the severity of the disease and its potential progression in pneumoniaoften leading to more unfavorable prognosis. To achieve these results published in the journal European Respiratory Journal in September 2023, the sound of coughing from 62 volunteer patients (23 women, 39 men aged 52 years on average divided into three groups: affected by Mild, moderate or severe Covid) was recorded usinga smartphone within 24 hours of their arrival at the hospital, between April 2020 and May 2021. At the end of this analysis, several parameters based on sound frequencies were revealed significantly different in the most severely affected patients.
The more severe the Covid, the more serious the cough
For example, the more severe the Covid was, the lower the “frequency variability” (in other words the pitch of the sound), this means that the cough was “severe”. The higher the “peak frequency” (which evaluates the power) was, which means that the The coughing sound was loud. The relationship between these acoustic properties and Covid severity were explored taking into account patient and disease profiles (sex, age and smoking status, as well as the duration of symptoms of Covid, the presence or absence of a pre-existing respiratory disease and oxygen needs) using modeling.
A simple and cost-effective predictive means to intervene more quickly
“All these differences reflect progressive physiopathological alterations happening in the respiratory system of patients suffering from COVID-19. Currently, diagnostic and prognostic tools are mainly based on expensive and less accessible imaging methods (radiography, ultrasound, computed tomography). Our research would potentially constitute a simple and profitable predictive method to identify patients who have developed or are at risk of developing serious illness. This would facilitate early interventioneven at home“, comment the researchers in a statement accompanying the study. Furthermore, if this study was carried out targeting patients with Covid-19, it could be applied to other respiratory conditions. Additional studies carried out on a larger panel are now necessary to confirm the results of the Spanish scientists and lead to the development of their prognostic tool.