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Remote Speech Analysis in the Evaluation of Hospitalized Patients With Acute Decompensated Heart Failure

  • Offer Amir
  • , William T. Abraham
  • , Zaher S. Azzam
  • , Gidon Berger
  • , Stefan D. Anker
  • , Sean P. Pinney
  • , Daniel Burkhoff
  • , Ilan D. Shallom
  • , Chaim Lotan
  • , Elazer R. Edelman
  • Hadassah University Medical Centre
  • Ohio State University
  • Rambam Health Care Campus Israel
  • Technion-Israel Institute of Technology
  • Berlin Institute of Health
  • The University of Chicago
  • Cardiovascular Research Foundation
  • Cordio Medical Ltd.
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

61 Scopus citations

Abstract

Objectives: This study assessed the performance of an automated speech analysis technology in detecting pulmonary fluid overload in patients with acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF). Background: Pulmonary edema is the main cause of heart failure (HF)-related hospitalizations and a key predictor of poor postdischarge prognosis. Frequent monitoring is often recommended, but signs of decompensation are often missed. Voice and sound analysis technologies have been shown to successfully identify clinical conditions that affect vocal cord vibration mechanics. Methods: Adult patients with ADHF (n = 40) recorded 5 sentences, in 1 of 3 languages, using HearO, a proprietary speech processing and analysis application, upon admission (wet) to and discharge (dry) from the hospital. Recordings were analyzed for 5 distinct speech measures (SMs), each a distinct time, frequency resolution, and linear versus perceptual (ear) model; mean change from baseline SMs was calculated. Results: In total, 1,484 recordings were analyzed. Discharge recordings were successfully tagged as distinctly different from baseline (wet) in 94% of cases, with distinct differences shown for all 5 SMs in 87.5% of cases. The largest change from baseline was documented for SM2 (218%). Unsupervised, blinded clustering of untagged admission and discharge recordings of 9 patients was further demonstrated for all 5 SMs. Conclusions: Automated speech analysis technology can identify voice alterations reflective of HF status. This platform is expected to provide a valuable contribution to in-person and remote follow-up of patients with HF, by alerting to imminent deterioration, thereby reducing hospitalization rates.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)41-49
Number of pages9
JournalJACC: Heart Failure
Volume10
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 2022

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors

Funding

The study was supported by Cordio Medical Ltd. Dr Amir has been a paid consultant to Cordio Medical Ltd. Dr Abraham has received consulting fees from Abbott, Boehringer Ingelheim, CVRx, Edwards Lifesciences, and Respicardia; received salary support from V-Wave Medical; and research support from the U.S. National Institutes of Health/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Dr Anker has received grant support from Abbott and Vifor Pharma; and fees from Abbott, Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Cardiac Dimension, Impulse Dynamics, Novartis, Servier, and Vifor Pharma. Dr Pinney has received consulting fees from Abbott, CareDx, Medtronic, NuPulse, and Procyrion. Dr Shallom is the Chief Technology Officer of Cordio Medical. Dr Lotan has been a board member of Cordio Medical Ltd; and has received lectures fee from Boehringer Ingelheim. Dr Edelman has been supported in part by a grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH R01 49039); and a paid consultant to Cordio Medical Ltd. All other authors have reported that they have no relationships relevant to the contents of this paper to disclose. The authors acknowledge the substantial contributions of key team members: Mrs Maria Goldshmidt, Dr Geula Klorin, and Dr Katya Dolnikov, MD, PhD, Internal Medicine “B”, Rambam Health Care Campus, Haifa, Israel.

FundersFunder number
CVRx
Cordio Medical Ltd
Rambam Health Care Campus, Haifa, Israel
National Institutes of HealthR01 49039
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
Boehringer Ingelheim
Abbott Laboratories
Edwards Lifesciences
Bayer Fund
Respicardia
Vifor Pharma

    Keywords

    • acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF)
    • remote speech analysis
    • speech measure (SM)

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