A Machine-Learning Model for Lung Age Forecasting by Analyzing Exhalations

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2022Author
Pifarré Montalà, Marc
Tena, Alberto
Benavides, Arnau
Mas, Lluis
Suggested citation
Pifarré Montalà, Marc;
Tena, Alberto;
Clarià Sancho, Francisco;
Solsona Tehàs, Francesc;
Vilaplana Mayoral, Jordi;
Benavides, Arnau;
...
Abella i Pons, Francesc.
(2022)
.
A Machine-Learning Model for Lung Age Forecasting by Analyzing Exhalations.
Sensors, 2022, vol. 22, núm. 3, 1106.
https://doi.org/10.3390/s22031106.
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Show full item recordAbstract
Spirometers are important devices for following up patients with respiratory diseases.
These are mainly located only at hospitals, with all the disadvantages that this can entail. This limits
their use and consequently, the supervision of patients. Research efforts focus on providing digital
alternatives to spirometers. Although less accurate, the authors claim they are cheaper and usable by
many more people worldwide at any given time and place. In order to further popularize the use
of spirometers even more, we are interested in also providing user-friendly lung-capacity metrics
instead of the traditional-spirometry ones. The main objective, which is also the main contribution of
this research, is to obtain a person’s lung age by analyzing the properties of their exhalation by means
of a machine-learning method. To perform this study, 188 samples of blowing sounds were used.
These were taken from 91 males (48.4%) and 97 females (51.6%) aged between 17 and 67. A total of
42 spirometer and frequency-like features, including gender, were used. Traditional machine-learning
algorithms used in voice recognition applied to the most significant features were used. We found
that the best classification algorithm was the Quadratic Linear Discriminant algorithm when no
distinction was made between gender. By splitting the corpus into age groups of 5 consecutive years,
accuracy, sensitivity and specificity of, respectively, 94.69%, 94.45% and 99.45% were found. Features
in the audio of users’ expiration that allowed them to be classified by their corresponding lung age
group of 5 years were successfully detected. Our methodology can become a reliable tool for use
with mobile devices to detect lung abnormalities or diseases.
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Sensors, 2022, vol. 22, núm. 3, 1106European research projects
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