Validation study of the quality of home spirometry performed by Air Next spirometer in combination with mobile coaching system: preliminary results

Abstract

Introduction: The Air Next (NuvoAir, Sweden) is a novel spirometer that connects via Bluetooth to a smartphone application, permitting patients to monitoring lung function at home. There is little information on the quality of such unsupervised home spirometry tests.

Aim: The objective of this study was to assess the quality of home spirometry performed with Air Next in combination with the mobile coaching system.

Methods: We conducted a descriptive, longitudinal prospective study at the outpatient asthma clinic of the Respiratory Medicine Department of the University Hospital of Ioannina. Nine patients with asthma were enrolled, who were provided with the Air Next. Patients received brief training by a specialized nurse and were advised to perform spirometry at home on a regular basis to monitor their asthma. Spirometric values were validated using the American Thoracic Society 2019 grading system (A: ³3 acceptable tests with repeatability within 150mL of highest values; B: 2 acceptable tests with repeatability within 150mL; C: ³2 acceptable tests with repeatability within 200mL; D: ³2 acceptable tests with repeatability within 250mL; E: One acceptable test; F: No acceptable test). We report the preliminary results of an ongoing longitudinal study.

Results: Overall 541 sessions were performed over six months. Overall, measurements were high quality, with 453 sessions (84%) categorized as A, B or C (176 sessions were A, 239 B, and 38 C).

Conclusions: Our results support the unsupervised home use of Air Next in combination with the coaching system to reliably collect high quality measurements and to remotely monitor patients with asthma.