53
Research Trials
20
Peer-reviewed publications
16
Clinical Conditions
This narrative review by Hyfe's R&D team makes the case that continuous cough monitoring (CCM), powered by acoustic AI, transforms cough from a subjective symptom into a quantifiable digital biomarker.
Authored by Hyfe's R&D team, this review synthesizes work presented at the European Respiratory Society Congress 2025 and argues that objective cough monitoring has crossed a practical threshold, moving from experimental technique to deployable clinical endpoint.
At CHEST 2025, held in Chicago, Illinois, Laurie Slovarp, PhD, CCC-SLP, professor at the University of Montana and certified speech pathologist, presented a poster on the development of a digital therapeutic designed to improve access to behavioral cough suppression therapy for patients with refractory chronic cough.
This study asked whether the core components of BCST could be embedded in a digital therapeutic and paired with continuous, objective cough monitoring inside the CoughPro app.
01.10.2024
Background:
The hydration status of surface liquid in the larynx and trachea may regulate peripheral cough receptors.
Hypothesis:
Topical hypertonic divalent salts (HDS) buffered to alkalinity provides relief for refractory chronic cough.
We conducted an exploratory, single-blinded controlled study in 12 chronic cough patients to examine cough-suppression efficacy of a nasally delivered HDS composition (SC001) at pH 8 or pH 9, compared to a normal saline (NS) control. Subjects were monitored continuously using the Hyfe CoughMonitor smartwatch for one week of baseline, one week of NS, and one week of SC001.
Baseline cough rates ranged from 4 to 41 coughs/hr with a mean visual analog score (VAS) of 65±17. Adjusting for control, SC001 demonstrated efficacy at suppressing cough by 15% from Day 1 (p=0.015) and 23% from Day 3 (p=0.002) overall (n=12). Efficacy was highest in subjects treated with SC001 pH 9 (n=5), with a 25% cough-suppression observed from Day 1 (p=0.03) and 35% from Day 3 (p=0.02). Lower efficacy was observed for SC001 pH 8 (n=7), with 9% (p=0.08) and 16% (p=0.02) suppression observed from Day 1 and Day 3 respectively. Hourly cough counts correlated with VAS scores (ρ = 0.266, p-value = 0.015) at baseline and increased with treatment (ρ = 0.507, p-value = 0.000002). No adverse events were reported.
Alkaline (pH 9) HDS aerosol is a promising treatment for refractory chronic cough.
