Diagnosis of asthma can be confirmed based on variability in peak expiratory flow (PEF) or changes in forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV) measured with spirometry. Our aim was to use methacholine challenge as a model of induced airway obstruction to assess how well relative changes in PEF reflect airway obstruction in comparison to relative changes in FEV. We retrospectively studied 878 patients who completed a methacholine challenge test.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFClin Physiol Funct Imaging
March 2024
Decrease in forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV ) of 10% or 15% in exercise challenge test is considered diagnostic for asthma, but a decrease of 15% in peak expiratory flow (PEF) is recommended as an alternative. Our aim was to assess the accuracy of different PEF cut-off points in comparison to FEV . We retrospectively studied 326 free running exercise challenge tests with spirometry in children 6-16 years old.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Risk factors related to the harmful behaviors, psychosocial wellbeing, and socio-economic circumstances in the lives of pregnant women can lead to adverse birth outcomes, including low birth weight (LBW).
Objective: This systematic search and review aims to provide a comparative evidence synthesis on the effect of eleven antenatal interventions targeted to address psychosocial risk factors on adverse birth outcomes.
Methods: We searched MEDLINE, Embase, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials and CINAHL Complete between March 2020 and May 2020.