Paper
Consequences of Using Post- or Pre-Bronchodilator Reference Values in Interpreting Spirometry.
Published Jun 20, 2023 · A. Malinovschi, Xingwu Zhou, A. Andersson
American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine
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Abstract
RATIONALE Post-bronchodilator (BD) spirometry is used for diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). However, pre-BD reference values are used for spirometry interpretation. OBJECTIVES To compare the resulting prevalence rates of abnormal spirometry and study the consequences of using pre- or post-BD reference values generated within the Swedish CArdioPulmonary bioImage Study (SCAPIS) when interpreting post-BD spirometry in a general population. METHODS SCAPIS reference values for post-BD and pre-BD spirometry were based on 10,156 and 1,498 never-smoking, healthy participants, respectively. We studied the associations of abnormal spirometry, defined by using pre- or post-BD reference values, with respiratory burden in the SCAPIS general population (28,851 individuals). MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS Bronchodilation resulted in higher predicted median and lower limit of normal (LLN) for FEV1/FVC ratio. The prevalence of post-BD FEV1/FVC < pre-bronchodilator LLN was 4.8% and that of post-BD FEV1/FVC < post-bronchodilator LLN was 9.9% for the general population. An additional 5.1% was identified as having an abnormal post-BD FEV1/FVC ratio and this group had more respiratory symptoms, emphysema (13.5% vs. 4.1%, p<0.001) and self-reported physician-diagnosed COPD (2.8% vs. 0.5%, p<0.001) than subjects with post-BD FEV1/FVC ratio > LLN for both pre- and post-bronchodilation). CONCLUSIONS Pre- and post-bronchodilator spirometry reference values differ with regard to FEV1/FVC ratio. Use of post-bronchodilator reference values doubled the population prevalence of airflow obstruction; this was related to a higher respiratory burden. Using post-bronchodilator reference values when interpreting post-bronchodilator spirometry might enable identification of individuals with mild disease and be clinically relevant.
Using post-bronchodilator reference values for spirometry interpretation doubles the prevalence of airflow obstruction and increases respiratory burden, potentially identifying milder cases.
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