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Primary Care Respiratory Journal: Journal of the General Practice Airways Group logoLink to Primary Care Respiratory Journal: Journal of the General Practice Airways Group
letter
. 2008 Oct 15;18(1):50–52. doi: 10.3132/pcrj.2008.00064

Use of peak expiratory flow for assessing bronchodilator responsiveness

Ashutosh N Aggarwal 1,*, Ritesh Agarwal 1, Dheeraj Gupta 1, Surinder K Jindal 1
PMCID: PMC6619039  PMID: 18923799

Abstract

Lung function in 1686 adult patients was measured before, and 15 minutes after, salbutamol inhalation. Bronchodilator responsiveness (BDR) was defined as a 12% improvement over baseline in either FEV1 or FVC, along with an absolute volume increment of 200ml. Peak expiratory flow (PEF) change, both absolute and relative to baseline, was also calculated (ΔPEF and ΔPEF%, respectively). Change in PEF significantly correlated with change in FEV1. However, ΔPEF and ΔPEF% had poor discrimination in identifying BDR, with all specific cutoff values for ΔPEF and ΔPEF% having low or moderate sensitivity, specificity and predictive values.

Keywords: lung function, assessment, bronchodilator responsiveness, spirometry, peak expiratory flow

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Footnotes

None to declare.


Articles from Primary Care Respiratory Journal: Journal of the General Practice Airways Group are provided here courtesy of Primary Care Respiratory Society UK/Macmillan Publishers Limited

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