ABSTRACT
Objective To study the clinical application and its impact factors of tidal flow - volume measurement in infants with bronchiolitis and pneumonia. Methods Thirty infants with bronchiolitis and thirty infants with pneumonia were studied. Tidal breathing flow- volume loops were obtained after the patients were sedated. The tidal volume per kilogram(VT/kg) ,the fraction of tidal volume ex-heled at peak tidal expiratory flow (PTEF) to total tidal volume (VPTEF/VE), and the fraction of exhaled time at PTEF to total expirato-ry time (TPTEF/TE) were measured. Results VT/kg was not significant different between the bronehiolitis group and the pneumonia group. VPTEF/VE and TPTEF/TE were lower in the bronehiolitis group than those in the pneumonia group. Conclusion The measure-ment of tidal breathing flow - volume loops is a good technology, which would be helpful to evaluate airway obstruction in wheezing in-fants. The impact factors should be controlled during the measurement. Otherwise, the results would be affected.