Acoustic Assessment of Treatment Response for Children with Acute Asthma Exacerbation

Details

12:15 - 14:15 | Wed 20 Nov | Upper Foyer Balcony | A1P-C.2

Session: Poster Session - Monitoring Chronic Disease and Response to Treatment 1

Abstract

Asthma is the most common chronic illness in children with exacerbations leading to numerous emergency department (ED) visits each year. Current methods to gauge treatment response rely on qualitative measures which require skilled practitioners. In this work, we present a child-friendly acoustic device aimed at expediting and quantifying response to albuterol therapy in the ED. We compare 140 sound transmission recordings before and after hospital albuterol sulfate therapy from 10 children presenting to the ED. Preliminary data demonstrated a shift of 2dB after treatment and relief of symptoms. This improvement was also validated using the existing asthma assessment scoring system.