World Spirometry Day Puts Spotlight on Early Detection of Lung Disease

NEW YORK, NY (10/13/2010)—As part of the 2010 “Year of the Lung Campaign,” members of the Forum of International Respiratory Societies will recognize October 14 as the world’s first “World Spirometry Day.” Events across the country will take place to raise awareness among patients, physicians, respiratory therapists, public health officials and the public at large of the importance and potential of spirometry for early detection and intervention in lung disease.

“It is our hope that World Spirometry Day will elevate the status of often-overlooked lung conditions and reinforce the value of spirometry in diagnosing and monitoring these conditions,” said ATS President Dean E. Schraufnagel, M.D., who is professor of medicine and pathology and program director in the Section of Pulmonary, Critical Care, Sleep and Allergy at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

“Spirometry is the key diagnostic test for confirming the diagnosis of COPD, the fourth leading cause of death in the United States,” said Kalpalatha K. Guntupalli, M.D., FCCP, President of the American College of Chest Physicians. “Although there is no cure for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), the symptoms of this disease can be managed. Spirometry can help us identify the patients who have COPD and to what extent they have the disease, which are important factors in symptom management.”

World Spirometry Day events are tailored to the communities in which they take place so as to best serve the needs of the immediate population. “We intentionally did not standardize how these events should be run or what they should specifically entail,” said Dennis E. Doherty, M.D., chief of medicine at the Lexington VA Medical Center and professor of medicine at the University of Kentucky, who is co-chairing World Spirometry Day North American with Darcy Marciniuk, M.D., of the University of Saskathewan in Canada. “We wanted to encourage the development of these programs with the organizations that were hosting them, as we knew that they had the most expertise about what type of event would best serve their local populations.”

Anyone can participate in World Spirometry Day by downloading the WSD kit, available online at http://www.yearofthelung.org/1633-world-spirometry-day-kit.htm. The kit includes promotional signage, patient education materials, and guidelines on how to run an event

Spirometry is currently the gold standard to establish the presence of airflow obstruction in COPD and other lung diseases earlier in their course, such as asthma, or restrictive defects in pulmonary fibrosis.

COPD is currently the fourth-leading cause of death in the world, but is often overlooked as a public health threat because of poor public perceptions and knowledge. While typically thought of as a smoker’s disease, up to 10 to15 percent of COPD cases occur in nonsmokers, due to genetic predisposition and/or occupational or environmental exposures. Women are also more likely to get and to die of COPD than men, despite its reputation as a man’s disease. Similarly, while it is an irreversible disease, there are some steps that can be taken, even without medical intervention or supplementary oxygen, to improve the quality of life of patients and to slow its progression.

With early diagnosis and intervention, there are more options for treating lung disease and a better chance for patients to live longer and better lives. Spirometry is a critical tool in enabling those diagnoses, and World Spirometry Day is geared toward increasing public awareness and clinical use of spirometry.

In addition to events around the world, currently there are events scheduled in:

• Santa Barbara Pulmonary Consultants, Santa Barbara, CA
• Broward General Medical Center, Fort Lauderdale, FL
• Florida Lung & Sleep Associates, Lehigh Acres, FL
• Armstrong Atlantic State University, Savannah, GA
• University of Illinois at Chicago, IL
• Northern Louisiana Medical Center, Ruston, LA
• Tufts Medical Center in Boston, MA
• Cheboygan Memorial Hospital, Cheboygan, MI
• DMC Harper University Hospital, Detroit, MI
• Mary Lanning Memorial Hospital, Hastings, NE
• New York Methodist Hospital, Brooklyn, NY
• Brentwood Recreation Center. Brentwood, NY
• Winthrop University Hospital, Garden City, NY
• W.G. Bill Hefner VA Medical Center, NC
• Mission Hospitals in Asheville, NC
• Christ Hospital, Cincinnati, OH
• Health Fair in Observance of  World Spirometry Day, Viewmont Mall,  Scranton, PA
• Greer Memorial Hospital, Greer, SC
• Hillcrest Hospital, Simpsonville, SC
• Lung Center, Greenville, SC
• Memorial Hospital, Chattanooga, TN
• Ben Taub, Houston, TX
• Scott & White Hospital, Temple, TX
• Children’s Hospital of The King's Daughters, Norfolk, VA
• American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation Milwaukee, WI

About the ACCP:

The ACCP represents 18,000 members who provide patient care in the areas of pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine in the United States and throughout the world. The mission of the ACCP is to promote the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of chest diseases through education, communication, and research. For more information about the ACCP, please visit the ACCP Web site at www.chestnet.org.

About the ATS:

Founded in 1905, the American Thoracic Society is the world’s leading medical association dedicated to advancing pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine. The Society has 15,000 members who prevent and fight respiratory disease around the globe, through research, education, patient care and advocacy. For more information about the ATS, please visit the website at www.thoracic.org.

For more information, contact:
Jennifer Stawarz
847-498-8306
jstawarz@chestnet.org