Forced expiratory time vis–a–vis spirometric evaluation of diagnosing airway obstruction

Pramod Kumar Shridhar; Ajay Kumar Singh; Balbir Singh; Vidhu Vadini; Aditi Gupta; Sneha Bansal

Volume : VIII, Issue : IV, April - 2019

Forced expiratory time vis–a–vis spirometric evaluation of diagnosing airway obstruction

Pramod Kumar Shridhar, Ajay Kumar Singh, Balbir Singh, Vidhu Vadini, Aditi Gupta, Sneha Bansal

Abstract :

Spirometry, a useful investigation to diagnose airflow obstruction in humans has constraints of its lesser availability in resource constrained public health delivery settings, such as in India. Forced expiratory time (FET) is an alternative tool, which has been documented in many studies globally, to detect airflow obstructions with equal efficacy to spirometry. The present study was evolved with the objective of documenting the utility capability of FET technique. 120 patients of a Medical College in Himachal Pradesh, a northern hilly state of India, were enrolled for the study. FET was observed by trained physician and Forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) and forced vital capacity (FVC) were measured by spirometry. A two factorial Randomized Block Design study was formulated by considering six treatment combinations (three levels of FEV1 and two levels of FET) and 20 replications (patients) in each group of COPD and non COPD patients. FET of less than 5 seconds was significantly found to detect severe airway obstruction of less than 50%. The study documented that FET can be a useful diagnostic tool for diagnosing airway obstruction even at grass root levels of public health delivery where spirometry is unavailable.