TY - JOUR T1 - Daily remote cough monitoring in COPD JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J VL - 44 IS - Suppl 58 SP - P4008 AU - Michael Crooks AU - Yvette Hayman AU - Albertus den Brinker AU - Peter Hill AU - Alyn Morice Y1 - 2014/09/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/44/Suppl_58/P4008.abstract N2 - IntroductionCough is a symptom of respiratory diseases and continuous monitoring of cough may be a means for disease management, e.g. for early identification of an acute exacerbation of COPD (AECOPD). For continuous monitoring, unobtrusive cough sensors are to be preferred over the commonly used clip-on microphones. However, this means that such a cough sensing and identification system operates in a much more demanding acoustic environment.MethodsUnobtrusive cough sound recording and analysis using two remote stationary sensors and a dedicated semi-automated cough classifier (Philips ambient system) was undertaken in patient's homes for a period of 45 days after hospital discharge following an AECOPD. Cough monitoring using a validated system utilising a clip-on microphone (HACC) was performed on days 1, 5, and 20 to allow correlation between the systems.ResultsData were available for 13 subjects. The daily cough count fell during the convalescent period following AECOPD (P<0.01). The absolute detected cough count (mean ± SEM) was lower using the Philips ambient system compared with the HACC (255.9±52.9 compared to 736.5±43.9 respectively on day 1) but the correlation between the two systems was strong with a mean intrapatient correlation coefficient of 0.83 ± 0.29 SD and an overall correlation coefficient following mean normalisation of 0.9.ConclusionThough the absolute detected cough count was lower using the Philips ambient system compared with the HACC, there is a strong correlation between the two techniques. Therefore, daily cough monitoring using ambient sound recording and a novel semi-automated cough classifier is an effective and unobtrusive method of objectively monitoring trends in cough frequency in COPD patients. ER -