Predicting the onset of an asthma attack by identifying symptoms early could improve outcomes in children with high risk asthma. Researchers have evaluated a new non-invasive technological approach to analyze lung sounds in young patients to hopefully predict the onset of an attack. Findings are published in Respirology.

Researchers utilized lung sound analysis to non-invasively identify airway obstruction in 70 severely asthmatic children. The recently developed technology uses ic700 (the index of the chest wall at 700 Hz) to study the response of inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) in the children.

Participants underwent lung sound recording while in an asymptomatic state at baseline and one, two, four and eight weeks after ICS treatment. Additionally, asthma control was measured at 10 weeks with ic700 scores taken at four, six and eight weeks to compare with the occurrence of an attack in the following two weeks.

Results showed the ic700 scores in all participants decreased after eight weeks of treatment, while those in the un-controlled group had rates higher than the control group.

“The ic700 score is useful in assessing the effects of ICS treatment, predicting attack symptoms and identifying asymptomatic asthmatic children at a high risk for asthma attack,” concluded Chizu Habukawa, first author on the study, and colleagues.