Respiratory disorders in children can now be detected via smartphone

The diagnosis of childhood respiratory disorders can now be readily done with an automated cough analysis technology incorporated in a smartphone app, according to a recent study. This system delivers high diagnostic accuracy ( between 81-97%) in detecting respiratory disorders, including pneumonia, RAD, croup, bronchitis, upper and lower respiratory tract disorders.

In children, respiratory disorders are the 2nd most common reason for admission to the emergency department and is a major disease burden worldwide. The differential diagnosis of respiratory disorders can be challenging even for experienced clinicians with access to diagnostic support services.

Diagnostic delays and errors can result in an increased risk of morbidity, antibiotic stewardship and mortality.

Researchers compared diagnoses made by the algorithm to those from a clinical adjudication panel ( who had access to all medical records and diagnostic support service results) in order to determine positive and negative percent agreement for a number of respiratory conditions.

It can be difficult to differentiate between respiratory disorders in children, even for experienced doctors.This study demonstrates how new technology, mathematical concepts, machine learning and clinical medicine can be successfully combined to produce completely new diagnostic tests utilising the expertise of several disciplines, said a Dr.

To develop the app, the authors used similar technology to that used in speech recognition, which they trained to recognise features of coughs which are characteristic of 5 different respiratory diseases. The researchers then used the app to categorise the coughs of 585 children between ages 29 days to 12 years who were being cared for at 2 hospitals.

The accuracy of the automated cough analyser was determined by comparing its diagnosis to a diagnosis reached by a panel of pediatricians after they had reviewed results of imaging, laboratory findings, hospital charts and conducted all available clinical investigations.

The authors note that the technology developed for this study is able to provide a diagnosis without the need for a clinical examination by a doctor in person, addressing a major limiting feature of existing telehealth consultations, which are used to provide clinical services remotely. removing the need for a clinical examination may allow targeted treatments to begin sooner.

The Dr. said, as the tool does not rely on clinical investigations, it can be used by health care providers of all levels of training and expertise. However, we would advise that where possible the tool should be used in conjunction with a clinician to maximise the clinical accuracy.

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Read more at Speciality Medical Dialogues: Respiratory disorders in children can now be detected via smartphone https://speciality.medicaldialogues.in/respiratory-disorders-in-children-can-now-be-detected-via-smartphone/

This smartphone app helps reduce migraine

Researchers have developed a smartphone-based relaxation technique which reduces headache in people who are suffering from migraine. The RELAXaHEAD app guides patients through progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) -- a type of behavioural therapy in which patients alternately relax and tense different muscle groups to reduce stress. The study,clinical evaluated the clinical effectiveness of an app for treating migraine and adding an app to standard therapies such as oral medications under the supervision of a doctor.

"Our study offers evidence that patients may pursue behavioural therapy if it is easily accessible, they can do it on their own time and it is affordable," said an Assistant Prof. Clinicians need to rethink their treatment approach to migraine because many of the accepted therapies, although proven to be the current, best course of treatment, aren't working for all lifestyles," he said. To see if an app might increase compliance, the research team analysed app use by 51 migraine patients, all of whom owned smartphones. 

For the study, participants were asked to use the app for 90 days and to keep a daily record of the frequency and severity of their headaches, while the app kept track of how long and often patients used PMR. During the research, on average, participants had 13 headache days per month. Thirty-nine per cent of the patients also reported having anxiety and 30 per cent had depression.

PMR therapy utilising the RELAXaHEAD app dropped to 51 per cent after six weeks, and to 29 per cent after three months, said the researchers. "The study results suggest that accessible smartphone technologies can effectively teach patients lifelong skills needed to manage their migraines," he said.

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A new phone app detects ear infections in children

Researchers have created a new smartphone app, which can detect fluid behind the eardrum by using a piece of paper, the phone's microphone and a speaker.

According to the study, infection in ear occurs when fluid builds up in the middle ear behind the eardrum.

This build-up is also common in another condition called otitis media with effusion. Any kind of fluid build-up can be painful and make it hard for children to hear, which can be especially detrimental when they are learning to talk.

These conditions are hard to diagnose because they have vague symptoms. Sometimes children tug on their ears or have fevers, and sometimes there are no symptoms. In addition, young children may not be able to describe where are they feeling hurt.

Now, with the invention of new Smartphone app parents can detect fluid behind the eardrum.
The Smartphone makes a series of soft audible chirps into the ear through a small paper funnel and, depending on the way the chirps are reflected back to the phone, the app determines the likelihood of fluid present with a probability of detection of 85 per cent.

This is on par with current methods used by specialists to detect fluid in the middle ear, which involve specialized tools that use acoustics or a puff of air.

"Designing an accurate screening tool on something as ubiquitous as a Smartphone can be game-changing for parents as well as health care providers in resource-limited regions. A key advantage of our technology is that it does not require any additional hardware other than a piece of paper and a software app running on the smartphone," said co-author of the study.

Once diagnosed, ear infections can be easily treated with observation or antibiotics, and persistent fluid can be monitored or drained by a doctor to relieve symptoms of pain or hearing loss. A quick screening at home could help parents decide whether or not they need to take their child to the doctor.

This app works by sending sounds into the ear and measuring how those sound waves change as they bounce off the eardrum.

"It's like tapping a wine glass. Depending on how much liquid is in it, you get different sounds. Using machine learning on these sounds, we can detect the presence of liquid, "said co-first author.

Because the researchers want parents to be able to use this technology at home, the team trained parents on how to use the system on their own children. Parents and doctors folded paper funnels, tested 25 ears and compared the results. Both parents and doctors successfully detected the six fluid-filled ears.

The team also tested the algorithm on a variety of smartphones and used different types of paper to make the funnel. The results were consistent regardless of phone or paper type.

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Smartphone app to non-invasively detect anaemia

Scientists have developed a smartphone app that can detect anemia accurately and non-invasively.

Instead of a blood test, the app developed by researchers uses photos of a person’s fingernails taken on a smartphone to accurately measure how much hemoglobin is in their blood.
“All other ‘point-of-care’ anaemia detection tools require external equipment, and represent trade-offs between invasiveness, cost, and accuracy,” said the principal investigator of the study.

“This is a stand-alone app whose accuracy is on par with currently available point-of-care tests without the need to draw blood,” he said.

The app could facilitate self-management by patients with chronic anaemia, allowing them to monitor their disease and to identify the times when they need to adjust their therapies or receive transfusions.

This could possibly reduce the side effects or complications of having transfusions too early or too late, said a researcher.

The researchers said that the app should be used for screening, not clinical diagnosis.

The technology could be used by anyone at any time, and could be especially appropriate for pregnant women, women with abnormal menstrual bleeding, or runners/athletes.

Its simplicity means it could be useful in developing countries.

Clinical diagnostic tools have strict accuracy requirements, but researchers think that with additional research, they can eventually achieve the accuracy needed to replace blood-based anaemia testing for clinical diagnosis.

Anaemia is a blood condition that affects two billion people worldwide and can lead to fatigue, paleness and cardiac distress if left untreated.

The current gold standard for anaemia diagnosis is known as a complete blood count (CBC).

The researchers studied fingernail photos and correlated the colour of the fingernail beds with hemoglobin levels measured by CBC in 337 people: some healthy, and others with a variety of anaemia diagnoses.

The algorithm for converting fingernail colour to blood hemoglobin level was developed with 237 of these subjects and then tested on 100.

A single smartphone image can measure hemoglobin level with an accuracy of 2.4 grammes/decilitre with a sensitivity of up to 97 per cent, researchers said.

In the app, the use of fingernail beds, which do not contain melanin, means the test can be valid for people with a variety of skin tones, they said.

The app uses image metadata to correct for background brightness, and can be adapted to phones from multiple manufacturers.

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Scientists develop affordable tool to detect bacteria in food, water

A team of scientists has reportedly developed a new low-cost method for detecting bacteria in food or water samples.

A team  along with a food scientist, developed the tool which could be of use to cooks for fresh fruits and vegetables, once available commercially.

An analytical chemist and expert in detection methods for food contamination, said, "People around the world cook their vegetables before eating, but here in the U.S. more and more people like to eat these foods raw. This gave us the idea that a quick test that can be done at home would be a good idea."

Insisting on the importance of microbial contamination research, she added, "It has been a problem for a long time, but it is now the number one concern for food safety in the US".

The food researchers reported on their two-step method - one chemical, one optical - in two papers this year. They designed a reliable and sensitive bacteria-detecting chip that can test whether food or liquid samples carry a bacterial load. The chip, used with a light microscope for optical detection, relied on what the researcher called a "capture molecule," 3-mercaptophenylboronic acid (3-MBPA) that attracts and binds to any bacteria.

According to the accompanying report, the chemical detection method, "surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy" or SERS, relied on silver nano-particles. The techniques are now in the patenting process.

Over the past few months, the optical detection method was adapted for possible home use. With the smartphone microscope adapter that is widely available online, it could be used to detect contamination in food items.

It would require samples of water, juice or mashed vegetable leaf to place the chemical-based chip in for detection. the researcher reported that a summer high school student had developed a simple app for smart phones that can visually detect bacteria in samples containing the chip.

The researcher called it just a "beginning of the work" and is hoping to get appropriate funding to continue this practical application. 

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This smartphone app can detect strokes

Atrial fibrillation -- a common type of abnormal heart rhythm which leads to a stroke -- can now be easily detected with your smartphone using a low-cost application, a recent research has found.
According to the study, published in the journal European Society Of Cardiology, a team of researchers  have developed a low-cost app that uses the smartphone's accelerometer and gyroscope to detect atrial fibrillation with existing hardware.
"Atrial fibrillation is a dangerous medical condition present in two per cent of the global population and accounting for up to seven million strokes per year," said lead author Tero Koivisto, a vice-director of the Technology Research Centre (TRC), University of Turku, Finland.
Around 70% of strokes due to atrial fibrillation can be avoided with pre-emptive medication. However, atrial fibrillation often occurs randomly on/off and is difficult to detect by visiting a doctor. 


There are relatively large and costly electrocardiogram (ECG) devices that patients can take home for long-term monitoring but they require a patch or wires that are clumsy to use and continuous contact with electrodes tends to irritate the skin.
Due to the above constraints, current methods for detection of atrial fibrillation are infeasible for wide-scale screening of populations or higher risk age groups (60 years and above).
The study included 16 patients with atrial fibrillation in addition with 20 recordings from healthy people who were used as control group data to validate the developed algorithm and tested the ability of a smartphone to detect atrial fibrillation without any add-on hardware. 

 To detect atrial fibrillation, a smartphone was placed on the chest of the patient, and accelerometer and gyroscope recordings were taken.

Using this technology the investigators detected atrial fibrillation with a sensitivity and specificity of more than 95%.

"We measured the actual motion of the heart via miniature accelerometers and gyroscopes that are already installed in smartphones. No additional hardware is needed and people just need to install an app with the algorithm we developed," Koivisto added.

An individual needs to place the phone on their chest, take an accelerometer and gyroscope measurement, and then use the app to analyse the result. 

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