AIMS To study the role of treatment compliance and parents' smoking on asthma control in children with recently diagnosed mild or moderate persistent asthma who were prescribed inhaled anti-inflammatory treatment. METHODS Prospective cohort study of 167 children aged 6-12 years (64% boys). Patients were examined at inclusion and followed up for three years with a visit every four months. Peak...

Definitions Equipment Recommenhations Recommendation: Vital Capacity (VC) Recommendation: Forced Vital Capacity (FVC) Recommendation: Timed Forced Expiratory Volume (FEV[) Recommendation: PEF Recommendation (Monitoring): PEF Recommendation: FEFzs-75% Recommendation: Flow (9) Recommendation: Forced Expiratory Time (FET%) Recommendation: Forced Inspiratory Vital Capacity M a n e u v e r s Recomme...

The use of peak flow meters has been widely adopted for monitoring patients with asthma. The Working Party of the European Respiratory Society (ERS) has solely addressed technical and physiological issues relating to peak expiratory flow (PEF) (flow describes the rate of change of volume (volume rate), so that flow rate is equivalent to volume acceleration. Hence, PEF should be used in preferen...

Although home recording of peak expiratory flow (PEF) is considered useful in managing asthma, little is known about the relationship of PEF variation to other indicators of disease activity. We examined the relationship of PEF variation, expressed in various ways, to symptoms, atopy, level of lung function, and airways hyperresponsiveness in schoolchildren with asthma. One hundred and two asth...

Standardization of conditions for peak expiratory flow (PEF) monitoring is much more difficult in practice than for laboratory spirometry. Patients are usually asked to record PEF before medication. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of prior bronchodilator use on PEF outcome measures in a clinical trial. Electronic PEF records from 43 subjects with poorly controlled asthma were ...

We asked whether the addition of PEF recordings to a symptom-based self-management plan improved outcome in school children with asthma. In an open-randomized, parallel-group, controlled trial, we studied children aged 7-14 years with moderate asthma. After a 4-week run-in, 90 children were randomized to receive either PEF plus symptom-based management or symptom-based management alone for 12 w...

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 ...

Serial peak expiratory flow (PEF) assessment has been proposed in the clinical evaluation of asthma. In subjects attending the asthma clinic of a tertiary care hospital, we wanted to assess: 1) compliance in performing PEF; and 2) accuracy of a PEF-diary. Twenty adult asthmatic subjects, all using inhaled steroids, were asked to assess their PEF in the morning and evening with a VMX instrument ...

BACKGROUND Currently, functional assessment to monitor therapeutic response in feline lower airway disease (FLAD) has limited application. OBJECTIVES To evaluate if expiratory indices derived from pseudo-tidal breathing flow-volume loop (pTBFVL) representing lower airway obstruction would decrease after clinical improvement and to investigate the correlation between functional phenotype and i...

BACKGROUND Asthma is characterized in part by small airways dysfunction. Peak expiratory flow (PEF) measurement has been suggested by all international guidelines as an important tool in asthma management. The correlation between PEF and FEV(1) but not with forced expired flow at 50% of vital capacity (FEF(50)) is well-established. STUDY OBJECTIVE To determine the value of PEF measurement as ...