Poster Presentation
Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation Summit, 2025
Feasibility of Cough Sound Amplitude as a New Objective Cough Measure
Tom deLaubenfels, Richard Powers, Jason Kroh, Adrian Marinovich, MD, Allison Sees
What’s Inside?
This abstract examines the feasibility of measuring cough amplitude as an objective indicator of cough severity using the RESP® Biosensor, addressing a key limitation of traditional cough monitoring devices that capture cough frequency alone. Continuous, real-world 24-hour recordings were collected from 63 individuals with chronic cough, and more than 31,000 cough events were identified and annotated by trained respiratory therapists. Cough amplitude was calculated using the peak 12.5 ms RMS value within each event, providing a measure proportional to peak sound pressure.
Cough frequency showed a highly right-skewed distribution and occurred predominantly during waking hours (96% between 06:00–22:00). In contrast, cough amplitude demonstrated a more consistent distribution across the full 24-hour period, with similar mean values during waking and non-waking hours. Subject-level mean cough amplitude followed a bimodal, right-tailed distribution, distinct from the unimodal distribution observed for frequency.
These findings support the feasibility of quantifying cough amplitude using a wearable contact biosensor and suggest that amplitude may serve as a complementary objective measure of cough burden.
