Abstract
Introduction: Spirometry is the most used test to evaluate pulmonary function. Guidelines that defined acceptability and repeatability criteria for its implementation and interpretation among preschoolers were published in 2007.
Our objective was to quantify the actual compliance with these criteria among pre-school patients.
Methods: A review was performed on the baseline spirometry measured in patients aged 2 to 5 years in the Pediatric Respiratory Laboratory of the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, who were admitted due to recurrent or persistent coughing or wheezing. Only those results obtained in patients who took the test for the first time were considered. They were analyzed by international standards.
Results: A total of 93 spirometry results (mean age 57.4 ± 8.6 months, 48 males) were obtained, of which 44 (47%) met all acceptable criteria, 87 (93%) obtained expiratory time of ≥ 0.5 seconds, and 67 (72 %) of the patients had an end-expiratory flow of ≤ 10% from peak flow. The variation in the measurement of forced vital capacity (FVC) and forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) was very low (intraclass correlation coefficient > 0.9).
Conclusion: It was possible to meet the acceptability and repeatability criteria for spirometry among pre-school children in our Center, which was similar to previous reports. As in older children, this test is fully recommended for pre-school children who require lung function studies.
Los contenidos publicados en esta revista están protegidos bajo una Licencia Creative Commons Atribución 4.0 Internacional (CC BY 4.0). Esto significa que cualquier persona es libre de compartir, usar y construir a partir de este artículo, incluso con fines comerciales, siempre que se otorgue el crédito apropiado al autor original, se proporcione un enlace a la licencia, se indique el nombre y edición de la Revista.
Esta licencia no impone restricciones adicionales, lo que garantiza la libre circulación y reutilización del conocimiento con respeto y transparencia hacia los derechos de los autores. (Véase El efecto del acceso abierto).