Use of a Portable Spirometer for Studies on the Nasal Cycle

Abstract

Studies based on the nasal cycle are difficult because multiple measurements of nasal patency need to be made over many hours. There is a great need for a simple portable instrument that can be used away from the clinical laboratory for studies on the nasal cycle. Our aim was to investigate the usefulness of a small portable spirometer in studying the nasal cycle. The Mir Spirobank spirometer was fitted with a nasal adapter to measure the volume of air expired from each nasal passage during a slow vital capacity (VC). The spirometer was used to measure the fractions of the slow VC volume of air expired through the right and left nasal passage in turn. Hourly measurements were made over a 5-hour period in six healthy volunteers. The spirometry measurements of the volume of air expired from each nasal passage were compared with nasal conductance of each nasal passage (airflow at 75 Pa) obtained by posterior rhinomanometry. The spirometer was found easy to use by both the investigator and the patients. Simple regression analysis of the spirometer and rhinomanometer measures of airflow partitioning found a correlation coefficient of r = 0.827 (p < 0.0001: n = 36). These results indicate that the partitioning of nasal expired volume measured by spirometry is directly comparable with partitioning of nasal airflow obtained with rhinomanometry. Spirometry has considerable advantages over rhinomanometry for studies on the nasal cycle because of portability and ease of use.

Objective monitoring of nasal patency and nasal physiology in rhinitis

“…3 Nasal adapters have also been fitted to spirometers to enable measurement of nasal FEV 1 , nasal forced inspiratory volume in 1 second, and nasal forced vital capacity. 4,5 Peak flow and rhinomanometry represent physiologic measures. Rhinomanometry involves the simultaneous measurement of nasal airflow and the pressure required to achieve that flow, from which nasal airway resistance (NAR) can be calculated.…”

Role of spirometry in detection of nasal obstruction

“…8 This measurement method may have considerable advantages for studying the severity of nasal septal deviation, since it is quick, independent, easy to use and does not require complex calculations. 7 This method is purely inspiratory rather than expiratory, and demonstrates reciprocal vital capacity in accordance with the patient's complaints. The percentage of airflow obstruction on the obstructed side, in comparison with the non-obstructed side, is measurable and interpretable.…”

The use of nasal spirometry as an objective measure of nasal septal deviation and the effectiveness of septal surgery

“…Recent research has reported that nasal spirometry is accurate, reliable and reproducible. It has been shown that the nasal partitioning of airflow as measured by spirometry was directly comparable with results as measured by the rhinomanometer 11 . Further work has produced a normal reference range for nasal spirometry in 100 healthy asymptomatic individuals 12 …”

“…Hanif et al 11 first described the use of nasal spirometry as an objective measure of the nasal partitioning of airflow in 2001. The spirometer has the potential to overcome many of the disadvantages of the more conventional objective measurements of the nasal passages such as rhinomanometry.…”