PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Martyn Bucknall
TI  - Audit of a new mannitol challenge testing service in a UK tertiary centre
DP  - 2011 Sep 01
TA  - European Respiratory Journal
PG  - p934
VI  - 38
IP  - Suppl 55
4099  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/38/Suppl_55/p934.short
4100  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/38/Suppl_55/p934.full
SO  - Eur Respir J2011 Sep 01; 38
AB  - Guys and St Thomas' NHS Foundation trust (GSTT) is a tertiary hospital based in London, UK, offering specialist allergy and asthma clinics.In July 2010, GSTT switched from using histamine to mannitol for performing bronchial challenge testing (BCT). BCT is an essential diagnostic investigation for identifying/excluding asthma and monitoring responses to treatment regiimes.We performed an audit of the new service, using mannitol between July 2010 and February 2011. We looked at patient demographics, (age, sex, baseline lung function), test outcomes (i.e. positive, negative, reasons for terminating test, fall in FEV1), sources of referral and clinical rweasons for referral to our laboratory.Table 1 shows patient demographics and baseline lung function. 60 patients were referred to the service (28M, 32F). The mean age was 40.2 yrs.View this table:Table 1. Patient demographicsTable 2 shows source of referral and reason for referral.View this table:Table 2. Source of referral