ABSTRACT
Every year a large number of children travel by plane and/or to places with high altitudes. Most of these journeys occur without incident. Immigration and recent socioeconomic changes have also increased the number of patients with cardiopulmonary disease who travel. Environmental changes in these places, especially lower oxygen, can lead to a risk of significant adverse events. The paediatrician must be aware of the diseases that are susceptible to complications, as well as the necessary preliminary studies and recommendations for treatment in these circumstances. The Techniques Group of the Spanish Society of Paediatric Chest Diseases undertook to design a document reviewing the literature on the subject, providing some useful recommendations in the management of these patients.
Subject(s)
Altitude , Respiration Disorders/therapy , Travel , Altitude Sickness/therapy , Child , HumansABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To assess concordance in the measurement of peak expiratory flow (PEF) and forced expiratory volume ino ne second (FEV(1)) between the portable device Piko-1 (Ferraris) and a pneumotachograph. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Forced spirometry (Master Screen Jaeger) was performed according to ATS/ERS norms, selecting the best value of three curves, and three measurements with the Piko-1 were recorded the recommendations of the manufacturer. RESULTS: Eighty patients between 5-18 years of age were studied. Based on the Bland-Altman method, the mean differences obtained were 9.82 (95%Cl: 2.43-17.21) for PEF and 0.17 (95%CL: 0.12-0.21 for FEV(1). The intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.96 (p <0,001; 95%Cl: 0.93-0.97) for PEV(1) and 0.93 (p<0,0001; 95%Cl: 0.89-0.95) for PEF. CONCLUSIONS: Piko-1 offers FEV(1) measurements close to those obtained with forced spirometry, thus allowing more exact patient assessment in home-based follow-up emergency services, or hospital wards.
