Peak Expiratory Flow Rate as a Monitoring Tool in Asthma

Excerpt

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory illness of children. As of now there is no cure for asthma but it can be controlled with medications. The treatment is long and is modified according to the control of asthma. Assessment of control is based on clinical symptoms. To make the assessment more objective, pulmonary function tests (PFT) have been added in many assessment tools. Commonly used PFT for assessment is spirometry; commonly used indices in spiromtery include: Forced Expiratory Volume in 1 second (FEV1), Forced Vital Capacity (FVC), Mid Expiratory Flow Rates and Peak Expiratory Flow Rate (PEFR). Spirometry requires cooperation from the patients and children above 6–7 y of age are able to perform spirometry. In addition, the equipment is expensive and needs a trained person who can perform this test in children. A small inexpensive equipment that measures PEFR is in use for assessment of asthma. …