A new study was presented during 2013 ERS Congress with the aim was to evaluate exercise capacity, oxygen desaturation and minute ventilation (VE) during six-minute walking test (6MWT) in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). The 6MWT was performed according to the requirements of American Thoracic Society (2002) using a spirometer Spiropalm 6MWT with integrated pulse oximeter and...

The clinical importance of interrupter resistance (Rint) technique in asthma management on patients, who are not able to collaborate in the execution of spirometry tests, has been investigated a study by the Paediatry dept. of Siena Hospital (Italy). The aim of the study is to assess Rint utility in asthma management when integrated with clinical evaluation in preschool children. Rint was performed...

A new study was published presenting the work of the Global Lung Initiative (GLI) Task Force on multi-ethnic reference values for spirometry for the 3-95-year age range. The aim of the Task Force was to derive continuous prediction equations and their lower limits of normal for spirometric indices, which are applicable globally. As the Task Force explains "Until recently it was not possible to...

Premature infants often undergo postnatal growth failure and show an altered body composition (BC) at termequivalent age (TEA) with lower fat-free mass (FFM) and increased fat mass (FM) than infants born at term. Early nutrition and growth may impact brain growth. Nevertheless, the evidence relating BC and later neurodevelopment remains sparse. The aim of this study is to evaluate whether in an...