Peak expiratory flow rates (PEFR) were measured in 60 pregnant women aged 20-28 years (average 24 yrs) height between 130-160 cm (average 154.5 cm), each month beginning from 3rd month of gestation and also 8-10 weeks postpartum using, Wright's Peak Flow Meter. The PEFR declined from 329.12 +/- 4.40 lpm in 3rd month to 286.22 +/- 3.81 lpm in 9th month of gestation and increased to 347.86 +/- 2....

Dyspneic patients are commonly encountered by Emergency Medical Service (EMS). Frequent causes include Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and Congestive Heart Failure (CHF). Measurement of peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) has been proposed to help differentiate COPD from CHF. This prospective, cohort, pilot study was conducted to determine if PEFR in patients with an exacerbation of C...

AIM To investigate the acute health effects of winter outdoor air pollution (nitrogen dioxide (NO(2)), ozone (O(3)), sulphur dioxide (SO(2)), sulphate (SO(4)(2-)),and particles (PM(10))) on schoolchildren in an area of southern England where levels of SO(2) had been reported to be high. METHODS A total of 179 children, aged 7-13, from three schools (two urban and one rural location), were inc...

To document the normal values of pulmonary function tests in children and changes occurring in their values with various respiratory disorders, a study was carried over a period of one year in 95 healthy controls (39 females and 56 males) of 8-13 years of age and 51 cases with respiratory disorders (bronchial asthma-31, pneumonia-10, empyema-10) of matched age, sex and height distribution. The ...

Prediction equations for peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) of Malay, Chinese and Indian children were obtained by analysing 1020 PEFR recordings of children free of respiratory symptoms and illnesses. Boys had significantly higher PEFR than girls. For both sexes the highest levels of PEFR were observed in Malays and the lowest in Indians. The differences between Malay and Chinese boys were not s...

HYPOTHESIS Intravenous magnesium sulfate improves objective measures of expiratory flow in patients with acute severe exacerbations of asthma. DESIGN Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. SETTING Urban emergency department. PARTICIPANTS Forty-eight asthmatic patients aged 18 to 60 years with initial peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) < 200 L/min who failed to double their init...

A significant reduction in arterial blood oxygen saturation during fiberoptic bronchoscopy has been proved but it is not yet known whether all patients need supplemental oxygen during this procedure. The aim of study is to examine the relationship between peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) before bronchoscopy and oxygen desaturation during bronchoscopy. Measurement of PEFR (% predicted) performed...

BACKGROUND The objectives of this study were to determine whether cross-shift changes in peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) were related to respirable dust exposure in South African coalminers. METHODS Fifty workers were randomly selected from a cohort of 684 miners from 3 bituminous coalmines in Mpumalanga, South Africa. Peak expiratory efforts were measured prior to the commencement of the sh...

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the frequency of peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) measurement and clinical re-evaluation in the management of ED asthmatic patients. METHODS This was a retrospective chart review examining consecutive asthma patients who presented to the University of California Irvine ED between September 1, 2003 and December 31, 2003. Patients were excluded if they had a diagnosis of ...

In steroid resistant chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) we assessed the effect of q.i.d. domiciliary nebulized fenoterol (F) 1.25 mg and ipratropium (I) 0.5 mg for three weeks in a placebo-controlled, randomized, double-blind, crossover study. The twenty patients studied (mean forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) 0.8 l) all showed less than 20% increase in FEV1 to 200 microgr...