Home Care NetWork
Home Care Literature Reviews 2003
Asthma:
Mortimer KM, Fallot A, Balmes JR, Tager IB. Evaluating the use of a portable spirometer in a study of pediatric asthma. Chest. 2003;123:1899-907.
This systematic comparison of agreement between a portable spirometer used in the home and an office-based spirometer utilizing data from a cohort of 92 children with asthma found that the agreement between the devices for the actual values of peak expiratory flow, FEV 1 , and forced expiratory flow at 25% of FVC was excellent. During 2 weeks of twice-daily monitoring at home, children completed an average of 23 of 28 possible sessions (83%). Children aged 8 years or older were more likely to achieve acceptable and reproducible curves. Portable spirometers are easy to use at home, reliable, accurate and provide more information concerning pulmonary function than peak flowmeters.
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