- Asthma is common in young children.
- Diagnosing asthma exacerbations in those under 5 years is challenging.
- A recent study looked at an artificial intelligence designed stethoscope that combines auditory data with physical measurements.
- The researchers concluded that the new tool successfully detects exacerbations in children under 5.
In the United States, around 1 in 12 people have asthma — that’s around 27 million people.
Of these, about 4.5 million are under 18, making asthma the most common chronic disease in children.
Although asthma is
Reducing these risks relies on predicting exacerbations or catching them early. This makes accurate and careful monitoring vital.
However, this can be challenging in younger children, although a new stethoscope that utilizes artificial intelligence may make this task easier.
Adults and children older than 5 can use pulmonary function tests, which measure peak expiratory flow rate. For young children, however, these tests are often little help.
Medical News Today spoke with Dr. Alan Kaplan, the chair of the Family Physician Airways Group of Canada about the issue.
“Children are tougher to assess as they have more trouble describing their symptoms and often just accept them,” he said.
For example, one
With these measures largely ineffective for children under 5, doctors rely on listening to features of the child’s breathing, such as wheezing and rhonchi — low-pitched gurgles produced when breathing out.
Doctors generally assess these so-called auscultatory phenomena in face-to-face appointments. This makes them less useful for catching exacerbations early and identifying the triggers….
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