Abstract

Spirometry has been standardized to be carried out in children not younger than 6 years-old. However, several studies have shown that it is feasible to obtain acceptable and reproducible forced expiratory maneuvers in preschool children by adjusting the requirements to that group of age. Our aims were to evaluate the spirometry efficiency in preschool children using a modified standardization, and to propose new acceptability and reproducibility criteria for spirometry in this group of age. Eigthy healthy children (2.5 to 5.9 years old) were randomly selected through an informed consent followed by a survey and a physical examination. Each child was invited to do as many as possible forced expiratory curves in a Jaegger spirometer during a period not longer than 15 minutes. Curves with a clear peak expiratory flow (PEF), with a rapid rise and without a sudden ending of the expiratory flow from a point greater than 20% of PEF, were considered acceptable. The mean age of the 80 children was 4.7 years old and 31 of them were males Three children did not want to do the test. From the 77 that did the test, 72 (93.5%) were able to get at least two acceptable curves. These 72 children correspond to 85.7% of children younger than 4 years old, 90.3% of children from 4 to 5 y.o and 100% of children from 5 to 6 y.o. We concluded that spirometry is a feasible and efficient test in preschool children if the standardization requirements are suited to them. We propose to use a new set of acceptability and reproducibility criteria for spirometry in this group of age. © 2006 Sociedad Chilena de Enfermedades Respiratorias.