Introduction: Spirometry is important in the diagnosis and management of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), yet it is a common clinical observation that it is underused though the extent is unclear. This survey aims to examine the use of spirometry in the diagnosis and management of COPD patients in districts of, Karachi. Material and Methods: It is a cross-sectional survey involving four clinic settings: hospital-based respiratory specialist clinic, hospital-based mixed medical specialist clinic, general outpatient clinic (primary care), and tuberculosis and chest clinic. Thirty physician-diagnosed COPD patients were randomly selected from each of the four clinic groups. All of them had a forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) to forced vital capacity (FVC) ratio less than 0.70 and had been followed up at the participating clinic for at least 6 months for COPD treatment. Results: Of the 120 COPD patients, there were 111 males and mean post-bronchodilator FEV1 was 46.2% predicted. Only 22 patients (18.3%) had spirometry done during diagnostic workup, and 64 patients (53.3%) had spirometry done ever. Conclusion: We conclude that spirometry is underused in general but especially by non-respiratory physicians and family physicians in the management of COPD patients. More effort at educating the medical community is urgently needed.
Published in | American Journal of Internal Medicine (Volume 3, Issue 3) |
DOI | 10.11648/j.ajim.20150303.19 |
Page(s) | 146-152 |
Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2015. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Guidelines, Pulmonary Function Tests, FEV1, FVC
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APA Style
Muhammad Noman Rashid, Izhar Fatima, Farha Ahmed, Ali Muhammad Soomro, Beenish Noman. (2015). Spirometery and Its Application in Medical Practice for Diagnosis and Management of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Patients in Karachi, Pakistan. American Journal of Internal Medicine, 3(3), 146-152. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajim.20150303.19
ACS Style
Muhammad Noman Rashid; Izhar Fatima; Farha Ahmed; Ali Muhammad Soomro; Beenish Noman. Spirometery and Its Application in Medical Practice for Diagnosis and Management of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Patients in Karachi, Pakistan. Am. J. Intern. Med. 2015, 3(3), 146-152. doi: 10.11648/j.ajim.20150303.19
AMA Style
Muhammad Noman Rashid, Izhar Fatima, Farha Ahmed, Ali Muhammad Soomro, Beenish Noman. Spirometery and Its Application in Medical Practice for Diagnosis and Management of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Patients in Karachi, Pakistan. Am J Intern Med. 2015;3(3):146-152. doi: 10.11648/j.ajim.20150303.19
@article{10.11648/j.ajim.20150303.19, author = {Muhammad Noman Rashid and Izhar Fatima and Farha Ahmed and Ali Muhammad Soomro and Beenish Noman}, title = {Spirometery and Its Application in Medical Practice for Diagnosis and Management of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Patients in Karachi, Pakistan}, journal = {American Journal of Internal Medicine}, volume = {3}, number = {3}, pages = {146-152}, doi = {10.11648/j.ajim.20150303.19}, url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajim.20150303.19}, eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajim.20150303.19}, abstract = {Introduction: Spirometry is important in the diagnosis and management of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), yet it is a common clinical observation that it is underused though the extent is unclear. This survey aims to examine the use of spirometry in the diagnosis and management of COPD patients in districts of, Karachi. Material and Methods: It is a cross-sectional survey involving four clinic settings: hospital-based respiratory specialist clinic, hospital-based mixed medical specialist clinic, general outpatient clinic (primary care), and tuberculosis and chest clinic. Thirty physician-diagnosed COPD patients were randomly selected from each of the four clinic groups. All of them had a forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) to forced vital capacity (FVC) ratio less than 0.70 and had been followed up at the participating clinic for at least 6 months for COPD treatment. Results: Of the 120 COPD patients, there were 111 males and mean post-bronchodilator FEV1 was 46.2% predicted. Only 22 patients (18.3%) had spirometry done during diagnostic workup, and 64 patients (53.3%) had spirometry done ever. Conclusion: We conclude that spirometry is underused in general but especially by non-respiratory physicians and family physicians in the management of COPD patients. More effort at educating the medical community is urgently needed.}, year = {2015} }
TY - JOUR T1 - Spirometery and Its Application in Medical Practice for Diagnosis and Management of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Patients in Karachi, Pakistan AU - Muhammad Noman Rashid AU - Izhar Fatima AU - Farha Ahmed AU - Ali Muhammad Soomro AU - Beenish Noman Y1 - 2015/06/11 PY - 2015 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajim.20150303.19 DO - 10.11648/j.ajim.20150303.19 T2 - American Journal of Internal Medicine JF - American Journal of Internal Medicine JO - American Journal of Internal Medicine SP - 146 EP - 152 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2330-4324 UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajim.20150303.19 AB - Introduction: Spirometry is important in the diagnosis and management of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), yet it is a common clinical observation that it is underused though the extent is unclear. This survey aims to examine the use of spirometry in the diagnosis and management of COPD patients in districts of, Karachi. Material and Methods: It is a cross-sectional survey involving four clinic settings: hospital-based respiratory specialist clinic, hospital-based mixed medical specialist clinic, general outpatient clinic (primary care), and tuberculosis and chest clinic. Thirty physician-diagnosed COPD patients were randomly selected from each of the four clinic groups. All of them had a forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) to forced vital capacity (FVC) ratio less than 0.70 and had been followed up at the participating clinic for at least 6 months for COPD treatment. Results: Of the 120 COPD patients, there were 111 males and mean post-bronchodilator FEV1 was 46.2% predicted. Only 22 patients (18.3%) had spirometry done during diagnostic workup, and 64 patients (53.3%) had spirometry done ever. Conclusion: We conclude that spirometry is underused in general but especially by non-respiratory physicians and family physicians in the management of COPD patients. More effort at educating the medical community is urgently needed. VL - 3 IS - 3 ER -