Lung diseases can be differentiated by the location of effect in the lungs which produce variations in cough sounds and patterns. This invention allows subjects to cough into a tubing system allowing the acoustics generated to be recorded with high fidelity and transferred to a computer. Based on these differences, analysis software estimates the lung disease type of the subject. Those who benefit from cough sound analysis include subjects in the early stages of undetected lung disease, subjects with conditions not easily diagnosed by standard techniques, subjects who demonstrate difficulty performing forced expiratory maneuvers and other pulmonary function tests (e.g., elderly, young, and very sick patients), and workers whose respiratory functioning may change during the workday.   

Inventors: Travis Goldsmith, David Frazer, Jeffrey Reynolds, Aliakbar Afshari, Kimberly Friend, and Walter McKinney

CDC Reference Number: I-020-99/0

USPTO Serial Number: 09/556,196

Patent Number: 6,436,057