Spirometry

Among older adults, COPD misclassification is high and is associated with higher respiratory symptom burden, health care utilization and lower physical performance, compared with the general population, researchers reported.

Pre-clinic phone call reminders improved the number of patients with cystic fibrosis who submitted home spirometry test results prior to their telehealth visit, researchers reported at the virtual North American Cystic Fibrosis Conference.

Preserved ratio impaired spirometry is a common lung function trait associated with breathlessness, multimorbidity and increased mortality risk, researchers reported in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine.

In a small study, healthy individuals who wore a face mask had modest respiratory discomfort and a slight reduction in cardiorespiratory parameters, but use was deemed safe overall even during vigorous exercise.

Nitrogen multiple-breath washout identified more cases of pulmonary dysfunction in childhood cancer survivors compared with spirometry, researchers reported in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society.

Remote monitoring would be ideal for patients with cystic fibrosis, but a study presented at the North American Cystic Fibrosis Conference showed a wide variety in reliability and accuracy.

In a new study, automated voice and breath analysis was associated with good predictive accuracy of FVC and FEV1 and classification of obstructed vs. nonobstructed lung disease.

Initiation of pulmonary rehabilitation within 90 days after hospitalization for COPD was associated with significantly lower mortality at 1 year, according to data published in JAMA.

Among people who have never smoked, the risk for lung cancer was more than twice as high among those with COPD, as compared with those without COPD, according to a Korean study.

The prevalence of undiagnosed COPD was high among a cohort of individuals participating in low-dose CT lung cancer screening, suggesting that the addition of spirometry to radiological findings would likely improve identification of those with COPD, new data in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society suggest.