• Paul Porter, Scott Claxton, Joanna Brisbane, Natasha Bear, Javan Wood, Vesa Peltonen, Phillip Della, Fiona Purdie, Claire Smith, and Udantha Abeyratne.
• Joondalup Health Campus, Perth, Australia.
• JMIR Form Res. 2020 Nov 10; 4 (11): e24587.

BackgroundRapid and accurate diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is problematic in acute care settings, particularly in the presence of infective comorbidities.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to develop a rapid smartphone-based algorithm for the detection of COPD in the presence or absence of acute respiratory infection and evaluate diagnostic accuracy on an independent validation set.MethodsParticipants aged 40 to 75 years with or without symptoms of respiratory disease who had no chronic respiratory condition apart from COPD, chronic bronchitis, or emphysema were recruited into the study. The algorithm analyzed 5 cough sounds and 4 patient-reported clinical symptoms, providing a diagnosis in less than 1 minute. Clinical diagnoses were determined by a specialist physician using all available case notes, including spirometry where available.ResultsThe algorithm demonstrated high positive percent agreement (PPA) and negative percent agreement (NPA) with clinical diagnosis for COPD in the total cohort (N=252; PPA=93.8%, NPA=77.0%, area under the curve [AUC]=0.95), in participants with pneumonia or infective exacerbations of COPD (n=117; PPA=86.7%, NPA=80.5%, AUC=0.93), and in participants without an infective comorbidity (n=135; PPA=100.0%, NPA=74.0%, AUC=0.97). In those who had their COPD confirmed by spirometry (n=229), PPA was 100.0% and NPA was 77.0%, with an AUC of 0.97.ConclusionsThe algorithm demonstrated high agreement with clinical diagnosis and rapidly detected COPD in participants presenting with or without other infective lung illnesses. The algorithm can be installed on a smartphone to provide bedside diagnosis of COPD in acute care settings, inform treatment regimens, and identify those at increased risk of mortality due to seasonal or other respiratory ailments.Trial RegistrationAustralian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN12618001521213; http://www.anzctr.org.au/Trial/Registration/TrialReview.aspx?id=375939.©Paul Porter, Scott Claxton, Joanna Brisbane, Natasha Bear, Javan Wood, Vesa Peltonen, Phillip Della, Fiona Purdie, Claire Smith, Udantha Abeyratne. Originally published in JMIR Formative Research (http://formative.jmir.org), 10.11.2020.

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