Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Jun;68(6):441-444.
doi: 10.46747/cfp.6806441.

Diagnosing asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: Importance of pulmonary function testing

Samir Gupta  1
Affiliations

Diagnosing asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: Importance of pulmonary function testing

Samir Gupta. Can Fam Physician. 2022 Jun.
No abstract available

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Approach for confirming or rejecting a suspected or clinical diagnosis of COPD when spirometry access is delayed: Although treatment is seldom urgent in COPD, if there are long delays in accessing spirometry testing, it may be reasonable to start therapy on speculation while ordering spirometry at the same time and planning for a brief therapeutic hold, which allows for bronchodilator clearance before spirometry. Note that this algorithm does not account for an overlap of asthma and COPD diagnoses, restrictive lung diseases, and other conditions that may be suggested on spirometry testing.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Approach for confirming or rejecting a suspected or clinical diagnosis of asthma when spirometry access is delayed (children ≥6 years and adults): If asthma is suspected and there are long delays in accessing spirometry testing, it may be reasonable to start therapy on speculation while ordering spirometry at the same time and planning for a brief therapeutic hold, which allows for bronchodilator clearance before spirometry. If spirometry findings are negative, methacholine challenge testing is then required; if the results are negative, therapy can be progressively decreased with repeated methacholine challenge testing until a positive result or a negative result while holding therapy. If the patient demonstrates an acute worsening of asthma symptoms with therapeutic wean, therapy should be restored and a diagnosis of asthma is likely. This algorithm does not account for an overlap of asthma and COPD diagnoses, restrictive lung diseases, and other conditions that may be suggested on spirometry testing.
None
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Finley CR, Chan DS, Garrison S, Korownyk C, Kolber MR, Campbell S, et al. . What are the most common conditions in primary care? Systematic review. Can Fam Physician 2018;64:832-40. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Report from the Canadian Chronic Disease Surveillance System: asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in Canada, 2018. Ottawa, ON: Public Health Agency of Canada; 2018. Available from: https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/phac-aspc/documents/services/publicati.... Accessed 2022 May 9.
    1. Bourbeau J, Bhutani M, Hernandez P, Aaron SD, Balter M, Beauchesne MF, et al. . Canadian Thoracic Society clinical practice guideline on pharmacotherapy in patients with COPD—2019 update of evidence. Can J Respir Crit Care Sleep Med 2019;3(4):210-32. Epub 2019 Oct 18.
    1. Yang CL, Hicks EA, Mitchell P, Reisman J, Podgers D, Hayward KM, et al. . Canadian Thoracic Society 2021 guideline update: diagnosis and management of asthma in preschoolers, children and adults. Can J Respir Crit Care Sleep Med 2021;5(6):348-61. Epub 2021 Aug 19.
    1. Gershon AS, Victor JC, Guan J, Aaron SD, To T.. Pulmonary function testing in the diagnosis of asthma: a population study. Chest 2012;141(5):1190-6. Epub 2011 Oct 26. - PubMed