Authors: Perez-Padilla, R.¹; Vollmer, W.M.²; Vázquez-García, J.C.¹; Enright, P.L.³; Menezes, A.M.B.⁴; Buist, A.S.⁵; for the BOLD and PLATINO study groups,

Source: The International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, Volume 13, Number 3, March 2009 , pp. 387-393(7)

Publisher: International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease

Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is underdiagnosed. One barrier to diagnosis is the limited availability of spirometry testing, but in adults at risk for COPD, a normal pre-bronchodilator (pre-BD) peak expiratory flow (PEF) may rule out clinically significant COPD.

OBJECTIVE: To identify post-BD airway obstruction using data from 13 708 individuals aged ≥40 years from the PLATINO and BOLD studies.

METHODS: We evaluated different cut-off points of pre-BD. The PEF was obtained from a diagnostic-quality spirometer (not a mechanical PEF meter). At least one of the following COPD risk factors was present in 77% of the subjects: chronic respiratory symptoms; exposure to tobacco smoke, biomass smoke or dust in the workplace; or a previous diagnosis of asthma, COPD, emphysema or chronic bronchitis.

RESULTS: Although the positive predictive value was low as expected, a pre-BD PEF of ≥70% predicted effectively ruled out Stages III and IV COPD of the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease. Among those with at least one risk factor, only 12% would require confirmatory spirometry using this criterion.

CONCLUSIONS: Adding PEF measurement to a screening questionnaire may rule out severe to very severe COPD without the need for pre- and post-BD spirometry testing. Confirmation is needed from a study using inexpensive PEF meters or pocket spirometers with a staged screening protocol.

Keywords: COPD; screening; PEF; PLATINO; BOLD

Document Type: Regular paper

Affiliations: 1: Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Respiratorias, Mexico DF, Mexico 2: Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research, Portland, Oregon, USA 3: The University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA 4: Universidade Federal de Pelotas, Pelotas, Brazil 5: Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, Oregon, USA

Publication date: 2009-03-01

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• The International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease publishes articles on all aspects of lung health, including public health-related issues such as training programmes, cost-benefit analysis, legislation, epidemiology, intervention studies and health systems research. The IJTLD is dedicated to the continuing education of physicians and health personnel and the dissemination of information on tuberculosis and lung health world-wide.

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