The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of house dust mite allergen in bedroom floor dust on respiratory health of children with asthmatic symptoms. Two hundred and twenty eight school children with reported attacks of shortness of breath with wheezing in the past year and/or with doctor-diagnosed asthma, were included in the study. Data on home characteristics, both past and p...

background: peak expiratory flow rate (pefr) is recommended as a tool for control of asthma. the purpose of this study was to determine the normal value of pefr in the healthy high school children in babol, iran. methods: this study was conducted on 470 healthy high school children (285 girls, 185 boys with the age between 14-18 years). for the determination of pefr we used mini wright peak flo...

Previous studies have shown that the added resistance of a mini-Wright peak expiratory flow (PEF) meter reduced PEF by approximately 8% in normal subjects because of gas compression reducing thoracic gas volume at PEF and thus driving elastic recoil pressure. We undertook a body plethysmographic study in 15 patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), age 65.9 +/- 6.3 yr (mean +/...

The negative expiratory pressure (NEP) method has been previously used to assess the performance of forced vital capacity (FVC) manoeuvre in normal adults. The aim of the present study is to assess whether flow limitation is achieved during FVC manoeuvres in children aged 6-14 yrs. NEP (-10 cmH2O) was successfully applied in 177 normal children, the portion of FVC over which expiratory flow did...

BACKGROUND Exposure to wood dust can cause a variety of lung problems, including chronic airflow obstruction. METHODS Forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1), forced expiratory ratio (FEV1/FVC x 100), forced expiratory flow (FEF), forced mid expiratory flow (FMF), peak expiratory flow (PEF), and respiratory symptoms (cough, phlegm, breathlessness, wheezing, ...

COPD is a chronic disease that has not only a high prevalence and social costs, but is tightly connected to a significant decrease of health-related quality of life (HRQoL). The aim of this study was to evaluate the comparative impact on HRQoL of two psychological factors (self-efficacy, optimism) vs. classical medical determinants (forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1), peak expiratory f...

The efficacy of twice daily inhaled beclomethasone dipropionate administered by a concentrated aerosol inhaler (one puff twice daily-500 micrograms/day) has been compared with that of treatment four times daily with a standard dose inhaler (two puffs four times daily-400 micrograms/day) in 21 patients with stable asthma. Double placebo inhalers were used in a randomised crossover fashion during...

Mechanically-driven syringes used to test peak expiratory flow (PEF) meters must produce the American Thoracic Society (ATS) standard waveforms with PEF accuracy of 2%. However, gas compression within the syringe could result in significant PEF inaccuracy when testing high resistance meters. The gas compression artefact was investigated in a mechanical syringe (PWG; MH Custom Design & Mfg L.C.,...

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...

BACKGROUND The Nippy Clearway is a new mechanical insufflation-exsufflation device used to assist cough. METHODS We compared the peak expiratory flow (PEF) with the Nippy Clearway versus the CoughAssist in a bench experiment. The relationship between PEF and pressure at the airway opening during exsufflation (minimum expiratory PAO) was investigated under 6 combinations of compliance (30 or 6...