Asthma diagnosis for epidemiological studies An objective measure of asthma can be obtained in younger age groups by a provocative dose causing a 20 per cent reduction (PD20) in forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1), a recent study reports. Dr asthma kids asthma kids S Lewis, from City Hospital in Nottingham, and colleagues from the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, the US, assessed airway responsiveness to methacholine and subsequent peak expiratory flow in 1,513 individuals. Questionnaires were administered in 1991 and 1999. The researchers found that airway responsiveness coughing asthma asthma kids was more sensitive for specificity of asthma as diagnosed on the basis of the questionnaires than variations in peak expiratory flow. PD20 was most sensitive for specificity (61 per cent at 95 per cent confidence interval). Diagnosis was significantly more accurate in participants aged under carpeting and asthma asthma kids 50 as no measure recorded was related to asthma in patients aged over 50. Even PD20 was unable to distinguish between asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in these patients, the authors assert. They conclude that this test is suitable for the determination of asthma asthma lung diagram pics asthma kids for epidemiological studies.
