Spirometry is the fundament of respiratory function test and is the key to diagnosing and supervising the most common chronic respiratory diseases (CRD) (1), and is recommended in practice guidelines for the diagnosis and management of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma (2, 3). What’s more, as a diagnostic test, spirometry is a reliable, simple, non-invasive, safe, and non-expensive procedure for the detection of airflow obstruction (4). Therefore, the spirometry as a currently available tool for the early diagnosis of COPD and asthma is particularly important. Epidemiological data show that CRD has contributed to the magnitude of the non-fatal health burden globally (5). COPD is a worldwide public health challenge because of its high prevalence and related disability and mortality (6–9). The Global Burden of Disease Study estimated that 3.2 million people has died from COPD worldwide in 2015(7). In China, COPD was the third leading cause of death and accounted for more than 0.9 million deaths in 2013(10). Asthma is also one of the most common CRD and the global prevalence of self-reported, doctor-diagnosed asthma in adults is 4.3% (95% CI 4.2–4.4) (11). The United States healthcare system estimated that the total asthma related costs was continued to rise, and jumped from USD 53 billion for 2007 to USD 56 billion for 2009, and most recently USD 82 billion in 2013 (12, 13).
Considering the high prevalence and high mortality of CRD, it is important to promote spirometry. However, the respiratory function test is not widely used in the primary care settings. ERS (European Respiratory Society) guidelines quote evidence that up to 75% of COPD patients in Europe remain under-diagnosed (14). And a large population-based survey reported that Chinese patients who have COPD, only 6.5% have been tested with spirometry (15). A previous study noted that only 60% had been diagnosed with asthma, and less than 10% had objective assessment of airway function (16). As a consequence of the lack of simple and affordable spirometry the missed diagnosis of CRD is common. Many CRD patients are usually diagnosed when their condition is very serious. CRD underdiagnosis delays the treatment opportunity. The Burden of Lung Disease estimates of COPD underdiagnosis are substantially higher than those reported for high blood pressure, hypercholesterolaemia, and other similar disorders (4). Therefore, early diagnosis of CRD is a daunting task in primary care settings. However, several problems, including heavy and expensive spirometry equipment, complex program, maintenance charge and professional training for the reliable quality of test and interpretation, influence the accessibility of conventional spirometry. As a result, many primary care physicians require their patients to medical center for spirometric evaluation (17), and the financial burdens of patients were increased.
In recent years, quite a lot of portable spirometers have emerged on the market, only a part of the products has been accessed in clinical trials (18, 19). One of the portable spirometry used to detect pulmonary ventilation has a good consistency with the convention spirometer (20). There are several kinds of spirometry, such as full body plethysmography, fully portable units that are wirelessly connected to mobile phones. One of the more popular methods for evaluating patients with CRD is a clinical-grade, in-office, handheld spirometry solution (21). At present, there are some evidences to support that handheld spirometer has good sensitivity and specificity to identify airflow limitation compared with standard laboratory-based spirometry (22–27).
One of the latest devices in China is marketed as PUS201P (Guangzhou Changhu Medical Equipment Co. LTD). The PUS201P is a handheld spirometer does not require regular calibration. It is a portable device connected to a smartphone or tablet computer via Bluetooth and verified by the medical device registration certificate of China. The smart spirometric indices included forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1), forced expiratory volume in three seconds (FEV3), forced expiratory volume in six seconds (FEV6), FEV1/FVC, FEV3/FVC, FEV6/FVC, Peak expiratory flow (PEF), Maximum mid-expiratory flow (MMEF), forced expiratory flow after 25% of FVC has been exhaled (FEF25), forced expiratory flow after 50% of FVC has been exhaled (FEF50), forced expiratory flow after 75% of FVC has been exhaled (FEF75). The specific product appearance, work interface and quality control platform are shown in the (Figure. 1).
The purpose of our research is to verify the consistency of the portable spirometer with traditional Jaeger spirometer, and whether the portable spirometer can be used in the screening and diagnosis of chronic airway diseases in primary care settings.