Recognizing coronary infection with cough: researchers with discovery

Researchers have studied the cough of people infected with corona: an app could now help contain the pandemic.

Frankfurt – That Coronavirus Sars-CoV-2 continues to circulate around the world. The number of New infections also stands up Germany every day on *. It is not yet clear what “asymptomatic” role Crown infections play: these are contagions without being conspicuous Symptoms expire.

Researchers suspect these infections played a decisive role in the rapid spread of the virus Sars-Virus they have contributed and will continue to do so. Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) now have the help of artificial intelligence a discovery done. They have developed an app that only uses cough noises to detect if a person is with COVID-19 infected or not. According to the “MIT” researchers, the application can: although no corona symptoms have been detected so far.

Corona infection: cough as a symptom – app as a substitute for the test?

For the development of the app, the research team led by Juan Brian Subirana gathered around 200,000 Various sound recordings to cough. 70,000 Volunteers took part in the project. After coughing into a microphone, they were in Coronavirus tested. Round 2500 tests gave a positive result, although many of the infected no symptoms exposed.

An algorithm programmed by scientists could 98.5 percent the Corona infections with symptoms to the quite right to cough to assign. Around asymptomatic symptoms the app even reached a value of 100 percent.

Corona researcher with discovery: the app detects the cough of Covid 19

“Effective use of our diagnostic tool could reduce the spread of the pandemic if everyone used it before entering a classroom, workplace or restaurant,” explains MIT study manager Subirana. Artificial intelligence now needs to be further developed so that it can be used in Daily life of many people It can find space. For example, it is conceivable that users can use their smartphone every morning to coughwith the probability of one Covid-19 infection to determine. According to Subirana’s statements, however, the strength of the AI ​​is in the range of asymptomatischen Signs. In other words: those who are already infected don’t need to cough into their smartphone to see if they are still infected.

Scientists also point out that this app cannot replace a doctor’s visit. Only one matching Corona-Test could provide a definitive assessment of a possible infection.

As for the newly developed app from the US, no authority has so far taken a stand. However, various bodies generally warn against “do it yourself” testing. “Although many people would like to have security […] this is not recommended“, Explains, for example, the” consumer advice center “. But also the” Robert Koch Institute “and the” Ministry of Health “underline that “PCR test” the most accurate corona tests are. However, how would snapshots do “Antibody tests” enough, continue.

Corona: Scientists see parallels with Alzheimer’s

The research team is known not only from the beginning of Corona-Krise with diagnostic tools for Pandemic up. They have already developed procedures that Alzheimer’s *, Asthma or pneumonia can recognize by noises. In each case they used the following four Back Factors:

The results of previous research projects have been incorporated into the COVID-19Examination for: “So we thought, why don’t we test if these Alzheimer’s biomarkers are also relevant for COVID-19“Says Subirana. They would have one “Remarkable Similarity” noticed – in particular “Between Alzheimer’s and Covid-19”the scientists continue. (Tobias Utz) fr.de is part of the Ippen national digital publishing network.

Heading list: © Angelika Warmuth / dpa