BACKGROUND Respiratory muscle strength is influenced by aging. OBJECTIVES To assess, in a healthy elderly population, the influence of physical activity and functional performance on the pulmonary function parameters, on respiratory muscle strength and on coughing. METHODS Observation study that sixty one elderly with age equal or more than 60 years (72.3 ± 7.2 years), with normal spirometr...

STUDY OBJECTIVE To determine the ability of children and adolescents to meet the American Thoracic Society (ATS) goals for spirometry quality that were based on results from adults. DESIGN Observational. PARTICIPANTS More than 4,000 public school students, ages 9 to 18 years. MEASUREMENTS Spirometry was performed annually for 3 years, with the recording of maneuver quality measures of for...

Including positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) in the manual resuscitation bag (MRB) may render manual hyperinflation (MHI) ineffective as a secretion maneuver technique in mechanically ventilated patients. In this study we aimed to determine the effect of increased PEEP or decreased compliance on peak expiratory flow rate (PEF) during MHI. A blinded, randomized study was performed on a lung...

STUDY OBJECTIVES To compare in a clinical setting the within-session reproducibility of two pulmonary function electronic monitoring devices (PiKo-1; Ferraris Respiratory Europe; Hereford, UK; and Spirotel; MIR; Rome, Italy) with one mechanical device (Mini-Wright Peak-Flow Meter; Clement-Clarke International; Harlow, Essex, UK), and to evaluate the accuracy of these devices using as reference ...

Asthma at night is characterized by a nocturnal increase in airway obstruction. It has been hypothesized that nocturnal asthma results from an increase in airway wall inflammation at night. However, studies on inflammatory cells in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid and bronchial biopsies have produced conflicting data. This study assessed inflammatory cell numbers at 16:00 h and 04:00 h in bro...

BACKGROUND Variability in peak expiratory flow (PEF) has been proposed as a simple method of screening for asthma in epidemiological studies. This study was designed to assess whether the bronchial response to exercise and the diurnal variation in PEF identified the same subjects. METHODS Bronchial response to a free running exercise test was assessed in a cohort of 918 seven year old childre...

The aim of the present study was to test the effects of exposure to air pollutants on lung function. A panel of 19 adult asthmatics living in Padua (Italy) was followed for five 30-day periods during 2 yrs consecutively (1,492 morning and 1,434 evening measures analysed). Peak expiratory flow (PEF) and forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV(1)) were measured using a pocket electronic meter. Daily...

OBJECTIVE To correlate forced expiratory volume in 1 second (VEF(1)) and peak expiratory flow (PEF) with clinical parameters in children with moderate and severe asthma. METHODS This was a non-concurrent cohort study, carried out at a pediatric pneumology clinic, in Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil, between March and October 2002. The study enrolled children aged 5 to 16 years, with persistent asth...

BACKGROUND The assessment of lung function is of considerable importance in the diagnosis of respiratory diseases, normal reference values need to be determined. The peak expiratory flow (PEF) is a simple, reproducible and easily affordable test of lung function which has been used in resource poor countries like Nigeria. A study PEF was carried out in medical students of the University of Maid...

OBJECTIVES To compare the acceptability, reproducibility, and sensitivity of spirometric outcome measures of airway caliber during challenge testing in children. DESIGN FEV(1), forced expiratory volume in 0.75 s, forced expiratory volume in 0.5 s, and peak expiratory flow (PEF) were recorded during stepwise dosimetric histamine challenge tests. The responses were compared, and the reproducibi...