Comparison of five portable peak flow meters

Abstract

OBJECTIVETo compare the measurements of spirometric peak expiratory flow (PEF) from five different PEF meters and to determine if their values are in agreement. Inaccurate equipment may result in incorrect diagnoses of asthma and inappropriate treatments.METHODSSixty-eight healthy, sedentary and insufficiently active subjects, aged from 19 to 40 years, performed PEF measurements using Air Zone®, Assess®, Galemed®, Personal Best® and Vitalograph® peak flow meters. The highest value recorded for each subject for each device was compared to the corresponding spirometric values using Friedman’s test with Dunn’s post-hoc (p<0.05), Spearman’s correlation test and Bland-Altman’s agreement test.RESULTSThe median and interquartile ranges for the spirometric values and the Air Zone®, Assess®, Galemed®, Personal Best® and Vitalograph® meters were 428 (263–688 L/min), 450 (350–800 L/min), 420 (310–720 L/min), 380 (300–735 L/min), 400 (310–685 L/min) and 415 (335–610 L/min), respectively. Significant differences were found when the spirometric values were compared to those recorded by the Air Zone® (p<0.001) and Galemed ® (p<0.01) meters. There was no agreement between the spirometric values and the five PEF meters.CONCLUSIONSThe results suggest that the values recorded from Galemed® meters may underestimate the actual value, which could lead to unnecessary interventions, and that Air Zone® meters overestimate spirometric values, which could obfuscate the need for intervention. These findings must be taken into account when interpreting both devices’ results in younger people. These differences should also be considered when directly comparing values from different types of PEF meters.

Childhood mouth-breathing consequences at adult age: ventilatory function and quality of life

“…The physical therapy intervention consisted by postural correction and respiratory reeducation with stretching of inspiratory accessory muscles and abdominal muscles reinforcement may contribute to reduce the work of cervical muscles during the inspiration. Thereby, decreasing the respiratory effort by the of asthma symptoms (27). The occurrence of asthma was not reported by the subjects of the present study, what may explain the lack of difference in the peak of expiratory flow values between the groups.…”

Comparative Evaluation of Peak Expiratory Flow Rate between Computerized Spirometry and Peak Flow Meter

“…The PEFR values by spirometer and mini-Wright Peak Flow Meter correlate well with each other with very little difference as demonstrated by other studies. 3,4 However, other studies (Takara et al 5 ) have shown conflicting results and demonstrate no agreement between the spirometric values and values obtained with peak flow meter. The lack of agreement between the spirometric values and the values obtained from the meter does not indicate that they lack validity or perform poorly; it only indicates that the meters cannot replace the PEFR spirometric measurements.…”

Development of a Smartphone-Enabled Spirometer for Personalised Respiratory Health

“…Lately, electronic versions have appeared with the added benefits of accuracy and record tracking. Several reports [5], [6] that these devices fail to provide concordant measurements and no ageing studies exist to certify robustness of operation with usage. Philips-Respironics Assess Peak Flow Meter that is operated pneumatically and the smartphone enabled MySpiroo (under development) are two indicative devices.…”