Methods of airway resistance assessment

This recent paper published on the Polish Pneumology and Allergology Journal provides a clear and useful overview of the importance and the different measurement methods for airway resistance.

This paper illustrates characteristics, clinical utility and limitations of main three methods of airway resistance — plethysmography, FOT and the interrupter technique. The methods for measurement of airway resistance that were presented in the present paper seem to be a useful alternative to the most common lung function test — spirometry.

These methods should be commonly used in patients unable to perform examination with standard methods — i.e. children, elderly people, people with intellectual disabilities and those with limited physical efficiency. In clinical practice, these methods could be particularly useful for procedures requiring the assessment of the airways for several times in the short term, e.g. in hyperreactivity or exercise-induced bronchospasm provocation testing.

The table belows illustrates the main features of the parameters measured with the three methods:

The article details are the following:

- Title: "Methods of airway resistance assessment"
- Authors: Tomasz Urbankowski, Tadeusz Przybyłowski - Department of Internal Medicinie, Pneumonology and Allergy, Medical University of Warsaw, Poland
- Published in: Pneumonol Alergol Pol 2016;84(2):134-141

The study is available free to download at the following link: click here