Background. Cement dust inhalation is associated with deleterious health effects. The impact of cement dust exposure on the peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR), liver function, and some serum elements in workers and residents near cement factory were assessed. Methods. Two hundred and ten subjects (50 workers, 60 residents, and 100 controls) aged 18-60 years were studied. PEFR, liver function {asp...

Records of peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR), commonly used in hospital in the management of asthma, have not been evaluated as a method of identifying cases of asthma in population surveys. Four observers were asked to report on whether asthma was present or absent in 61 graphs of PEFR recorded two hourly for four weeks during surveys of working population. Agreement within individual observers...

BACKGROUND Serial measurements of pulmonary function to indicate decreasing respiratory muscle strength in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is well documented. Quantitative outcome measures include declining FVC, FEV1, maximal inspired pressure, maximal expired pressure, and maximal voluntary ventilation. Increasing peak expiratory flow time (PEFT) may represent a further sensi...

INTRODUCTION Multiple airway protective mechanisms are impacted with Parkinson's disease (PD), including swallowing and cough. Cough serves to eject material from the lower airways, and can be produced voluntarily (on command) and reflexively in response to aspirate material or other airway irritants. Voluntary cough effectiveness is reduced in PD however it is not known whether reflex cough is...

The diurnal variation (DV) in peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) has been studied among 132 grain elevator workers who accomplished three daily measurements of PEFR during three weeks. DV was calculated as the difference between the highest and the lowest PEFR as a percentage of the mean PEFR on each day. For the whole group the median was 5.9%. DV was higher among smokers and among workers with ...

OBJECTIVE Older people with reduced respiratory muscle strength may be misclassified as having COPD on the basis of spirometric results. We aimed to evaluate the relationship between lung function and grip strength in older hospitalized patients without known airways disease. METHODS Patients in acute medical wards were recruited who were aged ≥70 years; no history, symptoms, or signs of resp...

Ten children with severe asthma, who had been well controlled on maintenance betamethasone valerate aerosol for an average of 11 months, were given placebo aerosols without their knowledge. The period of placebo substitution was campared with one 28-day period of betamethasone valerate therapy beforehand, and two 28-day periods afterwards. Symptoms were increased during the placebo period, and ...

We conducted a study to measure the peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR), forced vital capacity (FVC) and forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) in a group of normal Malay primary school children aged 7 to 12 years. PEFR was measured in 920 children (482 boys and 438 girls) while FVC and FEV1 were measured in 292 of them (168 boys and 124 girls). In agreement with previous studies, we found th...

Peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR), an important test to assess overall lung function, was determined in 84 male adolescent subjects, out of which there were 46 and 38 nonswimmers (NS). Their ages varied between 9 to 15 years. It was observed that a significant spurt in PEFR value occurs in S at the age of 12 years. A similar spurt in growth (height & weight) in S, not so apparent in NS, was also...

Purpose: The aim of this study was to determine the inter-instrument reliability different dynamometers and spirometers commonly used in clinical practice. Methods: involved 113 healthy volunteers across three facility sites. At each site, dominant handgrip strength (DHGS), lung function (forced expiratory volume one second [FEV1], forced vital capacity [FVC] peak flow rate [PEFR]), were compar...