Quality of spirometry – requirements, automation, practice

W pracy omówiono podstawy wykonywania badania spirometrycznego ze uwzględnieniem procedury pomiaru krzywej przepływ – objętość oraz kryteriów jakościowych oceny spirometrii na podstawie zaleceń standaryzacyjnych. Dokonano analizy jakości pomiaru krzywej przepływ objętość w trzech grupach: u dzieci, u osób w podeszłym wieku oraz uzyskanych w trakcie Światowego Dnia Spirometrii. Podkreślono rolę personelu wykonującego badania oraz sformułowano kilka postulatów dotyczących realizacji sprzętowo – programowych systemów spirometrycznych.The authors present description of the spirometry focusing on forced flow volume loop measurements and corresponding requirements according to ERS/ATS 2005 [2,3] and PTChP [4] 2006 statements. The introduction to actually applied solutions in supporting automatic assessment of quality assurance (QA)criteria is also presented. The quality analysis of spirometric measurements was performed for three different groups: children younger than 10 years, the group of elderly people and the spirometry obtained during the World Spirometry Day. All the three groups expressed different quality problems: the main problem in children group was too restrictive value of the demanded time of forced expiration (especially regarding significant correlation between the age and the forced expiratory time) – only 23.9% children fulfilled this re-quirements, in the group of elderly people lack of plateau on the expiratory end was the mostly registered error – 60,2%. In the spirometries obtained during the World Spirometry Day the significant number of non-repetitive measurements and the small number of properly performed measurements (only 28%) was the most interesting aspect. The authors concluded that competence and qualifications of the laboratory staff played the most important role in ensuring the quality of spirometry. However, some demands could be addressed to manufacturers of spirometry equipment