Wheeze and cough measurements at night in children with respiratory symptoms
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Open Access
Wheeze and cough measurements at night in children with respiratory symptoms Markus Lindenhofer1,2, Lena Roth2, Clemens Mädel2, Florian Götzinger2, Katharina Kainz2, Christiane Lex3, Thomas Frischer2,4, Matthias Reinweber5 and Angela Zacharasiewicz2*
Abstract Background: Nocturnal cough and wheeze are important symptoms when diagnosing any respiratory disease in a child, but objective measurements of these symptoms are not performed. Methods: The aim of our study was to analyze the use of an automated detection system to assess breath sounds objectively in comparison to cough and wheeze questionnaires and to evaluate its feasibility in clinical practice. Results: Forty-nine recordings of thirty-nine children were processed (asthma n = 13; cystic fibrosis n = 2; pneumonia n = 5; suspicion of habit cough n = 7; prolonged, recurrent or chronic cough n = 13), and cough and asthma scores were compared to the objective nocturnal recordings. Time for audio-validation of recordings took between 2 and 40 min (mean: 14.22 min, (SD): 10.72). Accuracy of the automated measurement was higher for cough than for wheezing sounds. Nocturnal cough readings but not wheeze readings correlated with some of the corresponding scores. Conclusion: To our knowledge this is the first study using a new device to assess nocturnal cough and obstructive breath sounds objectively in children with a wide variety of respiratory diseases. The assessment proved user friendly. We obtained additional information on nighttime symptoms, which would otherwise have remained obscure. Further studies to assess possible diagnostic and therapeutic benefits of this device are needed. Keywords: Cough, Wheeze, Cough monitor, Nocturnal symptoms, Children
Background Respiratory symptoms, such as coughing, are among the most common reasons being presented in pediatric primary care [1, 2]. Getting reliable information from patient or parents on nocturnal symptoms like cough or wheeze is challenging [3]. Often, the parents’ perception of the frequency of their children’s cough is not accurate [4]. Smoking parents tend to underestimate their offspring’s respiratory symptoms [5]. While for nocturnal cough both under- and overreporting has been noticed [4], truly little is known about the true incidence of * Correspondence: [email protected] 2 Wilhelminenspital, Klinikum Ottakring, Department of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Teaching Hospital of the University of Vienna, Montleartstrasse 37, 1160 Wien, Austria Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
wheezing or coughing during the night. Furthermore, different treatment approaches in children with wheezing may show benefit, if initiated early [6]. There are numerous reasons for cough and wheezing at night in children, and irrespective of the underlying diagnosis, symptoms are usually not objectively recorded. Hence, important information on the patient’s history is missing and only assessed by self-reporting or caregiver ‘s s
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