Breath sounds, asthma, and the mobile phone

The sounds generated by breathing in asthma are widely accepted as an indicator of disease activity. We have investigated the use of a mobile phone and electronic signal transfer by e-mail and voice mail to study tracheal breath sounds in individuals with normal lung function and patients with chronic or exercise-induced asthma. Spectrograms from patients with active asthma and impaired lung function were significantly different from people without asthma (p<0.0001). Our results suggest that mobile phone recordings clearly discriminate tracheal breath sounds in asthma and could be a non-invasive method of monitoring airway diseases.