A task force supported by the European Respiratory Society has recently developed the first evidence-based clinical practice guidelines for the diagnosis of asthma in children aged 5 to 16 years. Nine PICO (Population, Intervention, Comparator and Outcome) questions were used. The task force then developed a diagnostic algorithm based on the…

The role of spirometry and forced oscillation technique (FOT) in asthmatic young patients has been investigated in a study published on the European Respiratory Journal. Spirometry is the most common pulmonary function test used in asthma diagnosing. However, it requires good patient co-operation. FOT has gained increasing attention for the measu…

An interesting study in the International Journal Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease traces the difficulties to differentiate asthma from COPD. Despite the availability of guideline recommendations, diagnostic confusion between COPD and asthma appears common, and often it is very difficult in a patient with airway obstruction to decide whether…

A new review study has been published in the Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness discussing the validity, reliability and principles of operations of existing portable open-circuit spirometry system. Portable open-circuit spirometry systems are widely used in the field of exercise physiology, especially in field settings when freedom…

A new review paper on the Respiratory Medicine Journal confirms the impact of small airways dysfunction and inflammation in adult patients with asthma. This systematic literature review analyzes the prevalence of small airways disease (SAD) in adult patients with asthma, and to ascertain how SAD prevalence compares between different studies when…

A new article published on the Respiratory Care Journal highlight the clinical and diagnostic relevance of total lung volumes measurements in addition to spirometry. The present study was performed to evaluate how useful are different pulmonary function test (PFT) parameters to diagnose obstructive lung disease in subjects with a restrictive patt…

An overview on the significance of Restrictive Spirometry Pattern has been published in the Chest Journal, official pubblication of the American College of Chest Physicians. The restrictive spirometry pattern (RSP) is characterized by decreased FEV1 and FVC but a preserved FEV1/FVC ratio. Epidemiologic research has revealed a substantial portion…

The importance of measuring ventilation during the Six Minute Walk test in COPD patients has been confirmed in a study presented during the European Respiratory Society Congress in 2015 and published in the European Respiratory Journal. The study, performed at Ryazan Medical University (Russian Federation), focuses on the fact that low tolerance…

A new poster was presented during the 2015 ERS Conference and then published in the European Respiratory Journal, highlighting the importance of ventilatory analysis during the Six Minute Walk Test (6MWT) in COPD patients. The aim of the study was to investigate the respiratory responses during 6MWT in untrained COPD patients. Exercise performanc…

A new study on the European Respiratory Journal highlights the utility to add FOT testing to spirometry in subjects following toxic inhalation (for example the 9/11 World Trade Center disaster in 2001). Although many community members developed respiratory symptoms after World Trade Center destruction in 2001, screening spirometry was usually nor…

An interesting poster presented during the 2014 ERS Congress features the importance of the six minute walk test with Spiropalm 6MWT in patients affected by fibrotic idiopathic interstitial pneumonias. Aim of the present study was to assess 6MWT performance with the Spiropalm device (that allows a combined evaluation of lung function parameters a…

A new study was presented during 2013 ERS Congress with the aim was to evaluate exercise capacity, oxygen desaturation and minute ventilation (VE) during six-minute walking test (6MWT) in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). The 6MWT was performed according to the requirements of American Thoracic Society (2002) using a spirometer…

The clinical importance of interrupter resistance (Rint) technique in asthma management on patients, who are not able to collaborate in the execution of spirometry tests, has been investigated a study by the Paediatry dept. of Siena Hospital (Italy). The aim of the study is to assess Rint utility in asthma management when integrated with clinical…

A new study was published presenting the work of the Global Lung Initiative (GLI) Task Force on multi-ethnic reference values for spirometry for the 3-95-year age range. The aim of the Task Force was to derive continuous prediction equations and their lower limits of normal for spirometric indices, which are applicable globally. As the Task Force…