Home spirometry appears accurate and feasible for monitoring chronic respiratory disease
Caitlin L. Wilson, Claire McLaughlin, Alvenia Cairncross, Eli Gabbay, Peter B. Noble, John Blakey, Alice L. Crawford
Abstract
Spirometry remains the gold standard to diagnose and monitor respiratory disease [1]. However, limited access has been further exacerbated by restrictions introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic. Underutilisation of objective testing with spirometry contributes to the misdiagnosis of respiratory diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) [2, 3]. Home spirometry is accurate in patients with relatively normal lung function and may overcome some of the access, cost, and infection control barriers associated with in-clinic spirometry [4–8]. What remains uncertain is the accuracy and feasibility of home spirometry with newer ultrasonic devices across a spectrum of respiratory diseases. Furthermore, a recent systematic review suggested unsupervised home spirometry underestimates FEV1 and FVC compared to supervised spirometry [9]. This study, therefore, assessed the accuracy and feasibility of ultrasonic home spirometers to monitor the lung function of patients with a range of respiratory diseases. Footnotes This manuscript has recently been accepted for publication in the ERJ Open Research . It is published here in its accepted form prior to copyediting and typesetting by our production team. After these production processes are complete and the authors have approved the resulting proofs, the article will move to the latest issue of the ERJOR online. Please open or download the PDF to view this article. Conflict of Interest: Caitlin L. Wilson. Research support: Ms Wilson was awarded the Margaret Lowman-Hall honours scholarship stipend to undertake this project. She has no other conflicts of interest to declare. Conflict of Interest: Claire McLaughlin. Research support: Dr McLaughlin is the recipient of the Bendat Family Foundation Clinical Researcher Fellowship. She has no other conflicts of interest to declare. Conflict of Interest: Alvenia Cairncross. Dr Cairncross has no conflict of interest to declare. Conflict of Interest: Eli Gabbay. Dr Gabbay has no conflict of interest to declare. Conflict of Interest: Peter B. Noble. Associate Professor Noble has no conflict of interest to declare. Conflict of Interest: John D. Blakey. Research support: A.Prof Blakey was awarded an investigator-initiated grant from Novartis. He has no other conflict of interest to declare. Conflict of Interest: Alice L. Crawford. Research support: Dr Crawford was awarded the Charlies Foundation for Research 2022/23 Bright Idea Grant Program. She has no other conflict of interest to declare.