Tuberculosis and Mycobacterial Pneumonia

There Is Hope: Celebrating 3 Years Cancer Free

DETROIT, MISeptember 16, 2024

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths, but there is hope! More Americans than ever are surviving lung cancer. In fact, the survival rate has increased by over 50% in the past decade. 

"After receiving my stage 3 lung cancer diagnosis, my doctor said, 'you have a good chance of beating this because of new treatments and research over the last several years,'" Karen Undieme said. 

That was back in 2021. She had her right lobe removed and went through several months of treatment but she never gave up hope. Now, she's celebrating being cancer free by spreading a hopeful message to help others that are going through the same experience. 

"I want to be a ray of hope for people going through this," Undieme said. 

She will join hundreds of participants and volunteers at the 11th annual LUNG FORCE Walk at the Detroit Zoo (8450 W 10 Mile Rd, Royal Oak, MI 48067) on September 29 at 7:30 a.M.

Friends and families can enjoy a nice fall morning walk and Zoo visit for a good cause. The event is held to support lifesaving research, local programs and advocacy for the 1.1 million people in Detroit suffering from lung disease. 

Registration isopen for the event which welcomes hundreds of families, friends, co-workers, including lung disease survivors and loved ones. 

Participants will enjoy a 1.5-mile route (untimed) through the Detroit Zoo (which will be closed to the public during the event) or they can choose a shorter option. The Lung Association encourages you to join us at this community event for celebration, education and comradery. Registration for individuals and teams for the LUNG FORCE Walk is free, but fundraising is encouraged to support the mission of the American Lung Association. Participants will receive complimentary Zoo admission.

For more information, and to register, visit LUNGFORCE.Org/Detroit.

Voices Changes May Indicate COPD Flare-up

A flare-up in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) can be predicted through changes in a person's voice, a new study claims. Photo by Adobe Stock/HealthDay News

A flare-up in COPD can be predicted through changes in a person's voice, a new study claims.

Patients' voices become higher-pitched, more breathy or hoarse when a flare-up is imminent, researchers found.

Using those cues, researchers are working on a smartphone app that could help people prepare for an exacerbation of their COPD.

"If we are able to do this, it would pave the way for early detection and diagnosis of exacerbations in the home environment," said investigator Loes van Bemmel, a researcher in respiratory medicine with Maastricht University Medical Cetner in the Netherlands. "This would enable patients to manage these events themselves at home."

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a group of lung diseases that include emphysema and chronic bronchitis. COPD prevents airflow to the lungs, causing sufferers to struggle to breathe.

Flare-ups in COPD symptoms can lead to hospitalization and an increased risk of death, unless people are treated early in an exacerbation, researchers said.

For the study, researchers asked 28 COPD patients to record their voices using a smartphone app every day for 12 weeks.

The recorded themselves saying "aah" for as long as they could manage in one breath, and then read either a short paragraph from a story or answered a question.

The participants also completed a daily questionnaire regarding their COPD symptoms, including 16 occasions when a patient experienced a flare-up.

Researchers analyzed the voice recordings and looked for changes that coincided with symptom flare-ups.

They found patients' voices became higher-pitched on the verge of a flare-up. They also discovered more "jitter" -- a breathy or hoarse tone -- in voices when an exacerbation is imminent.

"There were clear differences between patients' recordings on a normal day and on the first day of an exacerbation," van Bemmel said. "This confirmed our hypothesis that speech changes significantly, even at the very beginning of an exacerbation."

These results need to be confirmed in larger numbers of patients with COPD, but researchers are already planning to translate their findings into an app that would help patients better manage their breathing problems.

"While every disease is different, speech analysis could potentially help in other respiratory diseases as well," van Bemmel said. "We suspect there are speech biomarkers for many respiratory diseases."

Researchers presented their findings Tuesday at the European Respiratory Society (ERS) annual meeting in Vienna. Such findings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Secretary of the ERS meeting Fritz Franssen noted that catching a COPD flare-up early is important.

"When symptoms flare up, it can lead to a long-term deterioration in health and can even be fatal. If we spot these exacerbations early and give treatment, we know that serious complications can often be averted," Franssen, head of respiratory medicine at the Maastricht University Medical Center, said in a meeting news release.

"If it can be validated, this could lead to a quick and efficient system to alert a patient and their doctor that treatment is needed," added Franssen, who was not involved in the study. "Because it works via a smartphone, voice analysis could be used by anyone, at anytime and anywhere. This could ultimately save money, time and patients' lives."

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about COPD.

Copyright © 2024 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Voice Changes Recorded On A Smartphone Can Indicate A Flare Up Of COPD Symptoms, Study Shows

Changes in people's voices recorded on a smartphone can signal a serious flare up in symptoms of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), according to a pilot study presented at the European Respiratory Society (ERS) Congress in Vienna, Austria.

COPD, which includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis, is a serious and long-term lung condition. According to the World Health Organization, COPD is the third leading cause of death worldwide.

A flare-up in symptoms, such as difficulty breathing and coughing, is known as an exacerbation. During an exacerbation, patients may need extra treatment or hospitalization, and their risk of dying increases. However, if treatment can be given at a very early stage, these risks are far lower.

The study was presented by Ms. Loes van Bemmel, a researcher in the department of respiratory medicine at Maastricht University Medical Center in the Netherlands.

She said, "After an exacerbation, patients report a lower quality of life, their lung function can decline, and patients are at an increased and prolonged risk for cardiovascular events such as heart attack and stroke. It's vital to detect exacerbations as early as possible so appropriate treatment can be given. Unfortunately, it has proved difficult to detect exacerbations at their onset, since symptoms usually start when patients are at home.

"Patients and their families have told us that there are voice changes before and during exacerbations. We wanted to see if we could record patients' speech at home and analyze these recordings for early signs of an exacerbation."

Twenty-eight people with COPD took part in the research. Researchers asked them to record their voices via a smartphone app every day for 12 weeks. They recorded themselves saying "aah" for as long as they could manage with one breath, then either reading a short paragraph of a story or answering a question.

Participants also completed a daily questionnaire to gauge their COPD symptoms. During the study, there were 16 occasions when a patient experienced a flare-up of symptoms.

Researchers analyzed the voice recordings and looked for changes that coincided with symptom flare-ups. They found that patients' voices became higher pitched when an exacerbation was imminent. They also found more 'jitter' in patients' voices when an exacerbation was beginning. Jitter is when a voice sounds breathy or hoarse.

Ms. Van Bemmel said, "There were clear differences between patients' recordings on a normal day and on the first day of an exacerbation. This confirmed our hypothesis that speech changes significantly, even at the very beginning of an exacerbation.

"These are preliminary results, so our findings need to be validated in larger numbers of patients with COPD. If we are able to do this, it would pave the way for early detection and diagnosis of exacerbations in the home environment. This would enable patients to manage these events themselves at home.

"While every disease is different, speech analysis could potentially help in other respiratory diseases as well. We suspect there are speech biomarkers for many respiratory diseases."

Ms. Van Bemmel and her colleagues are now planning research to build on their findings. In partnership with researchers at Radboud University Medical Center in the Netherlands, the team will co-create a mobile app for people living with COPD.

The SPEAK app will be used by patients to detect exacerbations via speech signals and give support for treating symptoms in the home. At the same time, the researchers are looking into ways to responsibly collect, store and analyze speech data so that the privacy of the speaker is maintained.

Professor Frits Franssen is Secretary of the ERS assembly on respiratory clinical care and physiology, Head of the Department of Respiratory Medicine at Maastricht University Medical Center, Netherlands, and was not involved in the research.

He says, "COPD is a common and serious condition. When symptoms flare up, it can lead to a long-term deterioration in health and can even be fatal. If we spot these exacerbations early and give treatment, we know that serious complications can often be averted. At the moment, that means the patient or their family deciding something is wrong then seeing a doctor for assessment and tests.

"This research is interesting because it suggests that the early signs of a COPD exacerbation can be picked up via changes in a patient's voice recorded on a smartphone.

"This finding needs to be tested in a larger study. If it can be validated, this could lead to a quick and efficient system to alert a patient and their doctor that treatment is needed. Because it works via a smartphone, voice analysis could be used by anyone, at anytime and anywhere. This could ultimately save money, time and patients' lives."

More information: Abstract no: PA4372 "Detecting the onset and peak symptoms of exacerbations of COPD by analyzing speech", by Loes van Bemmel et al; Presented in session, "Man and Machine: getting the balance right to support respiratory care and clinical skills" at 08:00-09:30 CEST on Tuesday 10 September 2024. [k4.Ersnet.Org/prod/v2/Front/Pr … ?E=549&session=17702]

Provided by European Respiratory Society

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