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Mass Screening of Children to Detect Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
Author(s) -
Hyde John S.,
Bharani Saki.,
Moore Bonnie S.,
Murray Janet,
Haggerty Nancy
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
journal of school health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.851
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1746-1561
pISSN - 0022-4391
DOI - 10.1111/j.1746-1561.1979.tb05293.x
Subject(s) - medicine , inhalation , pulmonary function testing , vital capacity , pulmonary disease , pediatrics , population , cardiology , anesthesia , lung function , lung , environmental health , diffusing capacity
Mass screening for ventilatory function was done on school‐age children in a community of 62,500 to determine the usefulness of this approach to detect obstructive pulmonary disease. The survey included 6,495 children, ages 4–14, at the time of compulsory vision and hearing evaluations. Medistor pulmonary analyzers were used to test flow and volume changes. Measurements of forced expiratory flow rate (FEF 25–75 ), peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR), and forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV 1 ) were obtained for males and females. Based on Cherniak's equation programmed in the Medistors, 14.3% of all subjects had 75 percent of their predicted values for FEF 25–75 . Of these, 887 were available for retesting, and 194 failed again. Thus, the prevalence of abnormal FEF 25–75 was 3.1 percent of the surveyed population. One hundred forty‐six of these children were subjected to a third study before and after isoproterenol inhalation. Of these, 49.3% were reversible, 33.6% were non‐reversible, and 17.1% were equivocal (11–14% improvement). disease can easily be detected by non‐invasive ventilatory testing equipment in school‐age children. Follow‐up of subjects who failed was recommended to each child's physician.