Tests & procedures / Results block
Hand-held spirometry results
The short clinic-room block, with a line for how good the effort actually was.
Hand-held spirometry in clinic ([date]): FEV1 [] L ([]% predicted) FVC [] L ([]% predicted) FEV1/FVC ratio []% Peak flow [] L/min ([]% predicted) Best of [] attempts; technique [acceptable and repeatable, or the limitation] [pre-bronchodilator, or post-bronchodilator with drug and dose] Interpretation: []
How to use it
The two lines that make this block worth more than the numbers are the effort quality and whether it was pre- or post-bronchodilator. A clinic FEV1 with no note of how many attempts were made and whether they agreed will be treated by the next reader as if it were laboratory-grade, and a post-bronchodilator value filed as if it were baseline is how someone acquires a diagnosis of COPD they do not have. Hand-held spirometry is for monitoring and for supporting a diagnosis, not for making a marginal one: send equivocal cases to the laboratory.
Why it says that
None of this is in the copied text. It is here so you can check the block against its source, and change it when the source changes.
- ATS/ERS technical standard on spirometry (Graham et al, 2019) Acceptability and repeatability criteria, and the requirement to report whether measurements are pre- or post-bronchodilator.
- ARTP practice standards for spirometry The UK standard for who may perform and interpret spirometry.