RESUMO
INTRODUCTION: Acute exacerbation of COPD or asthma leads to many acute hospital admissions every year. Even though the pathogenesis of these diseases differs, in both cases the cardinal manifestation is increased airway obstruction, which can be measured using peak expiratory flow measurement (PEF) or measurement of forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1). MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this paper we report on findings from the third examination of the project "The Good Medical Department", in which we investigated the prevalence of PEF and FEV1 measurements in patients admitted acutely because of exacerbation of asthma or COPD. RESULTS: In all, 581 patients were admitted for COPD and 16 due to asthma. Only 104 COPD patients (17.9%) had either PEF or FEV1 measured during hospital admission, whereas the corresponding figure for asthma was 6 (37.5%). The measurements were performed more often if the admission was in a pulmonary ward as compared to a nonpulmonary ward: 11.5% versus 7.9% (ns) for PEF and 27.7% versus 12% (p<0.01) for FEV1. DISCUSSION: We conclude that measurements of PEF and FEV1 among patients with acute dyspnea and exacerbation of asthma and COPD are used too seldom in Danish hospitals.
