Megan Brooks
Automated voice analysis using a proprietary smartphone app can detect pulmonary fluid overload with high accuracy in patients admitted with acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF), a new study suggests. Researchers envision the technique as a potential warning system for imminent decompensation in high-risk patients.
The speech analysis app ,HearO(Cordio Medical) identified voice alterations suggestive of changes in fluid status in such hospitalized patients, based on comparison of specific sentences spoken into it admission and at discharge.
“Speech analysis technology represents a promising new approach to the detection of volume overload in patients with heart failure and other edematous disorders. lf confirmed, this technology can easily be incorporated into the day-to-day evaluation of such patients,” William Abraham, MD, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, told theheart.org ןMedscape Cardiology.
“The technology may provide an early warning system indicating fluid retention, and along with the totality of clinical assessments, allow better insight into patients’ clinical status,” said Abraham, a coauthor on the study published December 8 in JACC: Heart Failure with Offer Amir, MD, Hadassah Medical Center, Jerusalem, lsrael, as lead author.