RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 To clip or not to clip? Noseclips for spirometry
JF European Respiratory Journal
JO Eur Respir J
FD European Respiratory Society
SP 876
OP 878
DO 10.1183/09031936.03.00048303
VO 21
IS 5
A1 R. Chavasse
A1 P. Johnson
A1 J. Francis
A1 I. Balfour-Lynn
A1 M. Rosenthal
A1 A. Bush
YR 2003
UL http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/21/5/876.abstract
AB The use of noseclips for open-circuit spirometry is sporadic, despite guidelines encouraging their use. The authors aimed to evaluate whether noseclips significantly affected measurements of forced vital capacity (FVC) and forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) in children attending a tertiary, paediatric respiratory centre. Children attending the asthma and cystic fibrosis (CF) clinics were asked to perform two sets of spirometry, one with and one without noseclips in random order, 20-min apart. Paired data was obtained on 62 patients (32 asthma, 30 CF) with a median age of 11.4 yrs (range 7.2–17.2 yrs). There were no systematic differences in FEV1 or FVC measured with and without noseclips, although seven children (11%) had clinically significant differences in FEV1 of >190 mL. There is no clear advantage to wearing noseclips when performing open-circuit spirometry. Individuals should be assessed to ascertain their optimal technique, which should then be used consistently in clinical practice. Noseclips should probably be retained for research protocols.