In:
European Respiratory Journal, European Respiratory Society (ERS), Vol. 44, No. 5 ( 2014-11), p. 1210-1222
Abstract:
The applicability and interpretation of inert tracer gas washout tests is hampered by the lack of feasible protocols and reproducibility data. We assessed feasibility, variability and reproducibility of a new easy to perform double tracer gas (DTG) single-breath washout (SBW) test and compared this with conventional nitrogen washouts. In 40 healthy nonsmokers and 20 patients with stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), we performed three N 2 vital capacity SBWs, three N 2 multiple-breath washouts and three tidal DTG-SBW tests. Follow-up was after 1 week, 1 month and 6 months. Main outcomes were the lung clearance index (LCI) (N 2 multiple-breath washout), slope of phase III (dN 2 ) (N 2 vital capacity SBW) and slope of phase III (SIII DTG ) (DTG-SBW). In healthy subjects, mean± sd LCI at baseline was 6.94±0.61, dN 2 0.99±0.42% N 2 per litre and SIII DTG −0.206±0.108 g·mol −1 ·L −1 . In COPD, LCI and dN 2 were significantly higher (LCI 12.23±2.67, dN 2 7.43±5.38% N 2 per litre; p 〈 0.001) and SIII DTG significantly steeper (−0.653±0.428 g·mol −1 ·L −1 , p 〈 0.001). Reproducibility was high for main outcome parameters: the intraclass correlation coefficient over 6 months was 0.77 (0.86 in COPD) for LCI, 0.82 (0.89) for dN 2 and 0.83 (0.93) for SIII DTG . The tidal DTG-SBW is a reproducible test in healthy and COPD subjects that seems attractive for use in routine clinical settings.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
0903-1936
,
1399-3003
DOI:
10.1183/09031936.00085713
Language:
English
Publisher:
European Respiratory Society (ERS)
Publication Date:
2014
detail.hit.zdb_id:
2834928-3
detail.hit.zdb_id:
1499101-9
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