Lutfi Mohamed Faisal
Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Alneelain University, Khartoum, Sudan.
Int J Appl Basic Med Res. 2011 Jan;1(1):20-3. doi: 10.4103/2229-516X.81975.
In patients with advanced obstructive ventilatory disorders, expiration may last for a relatively long time until the end-of-test standards for forced vital capacity (FVC) are satisfied. This may be difficult for both the patient and the technician. The Forced expiratory volume in 3 seconds (FEV3) and Forced expiratory volume in 6 seconds (FEV6) maneuvers are simple, undemanding and easier to perform when compared with FVC; however, their reliability to be used as alternatives for FVC is controversial.
To judge whether FEV3 and FEV6 can be used instead of FVC in detecting airway obstruction in asthmatic patients.
This study was a case-control laboratory-based study.
The study involved 40 known asthmatic patients and 40 apparently healthy, gender- and age-matched controls. Spirometery was used for assessing pulmonary function according to the American Thoracic Society and European Respiratory Society criteria.
A significant difference in the means between the groups was performed using Student's t-test. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to compare efficiency of the studied spirometric measurements on asthma diagnosis.
The mean of FEV3 was not significantly different when compared with the mean of FVC (P = 0.352 for asthmatic patients and P = 0.957 for control group). This was also true when the mean of FEV6 was compared with the mean of FVC (P = 0.805 for asthmatic patients and P = 0.957 for control group). The area under the ROC curves of FEV1/FVC%, FEV1/FEV3% and FEV1/FEV6% were also comparable.
FEV3 and FEV6 are accurate and reliable alternatives for FVC in assessing airway obstruction of asthmatic patients.
在患有晚期阻塞性通气障碍的患者中，呼气可能会持续较长时间，直到满足用力肺活量（FVC）的测试结束标准。这对患者和技术人员来说可能都很困难。与FVC相比，3秒用力呼气容积（FEV3）和6秒用力呼气容积（FEV6）操作简单、要求不高且更容易进行；然而，它们作为FVC替代指标的可靠性存在争议。
判断FEV3和FEV6是否可用于替代FVC来检测哮喘患者的气道阻塞。
本研究是一项基于实验室的病例对照研究。
该研究纳入了40名已知哮喘患者和40名年龄、性别匹配的明显健康对照者。根据美国胸科学会和欧洲呼吸学会的标准，使用肺量计评估肺功能。
采用学生t检验对两组间的均值进行显著性差异分析。使用受试者工作特征（ROC）曲线比较所研究的肺量计测量指标对哮喘诊断的效率。
与FVC均值相比，FEV3均值无显著差异（哮喘患者P = 0.352，对照组P = 0.957）。FEV6均值与FVC均值比较时也是如此（哮喘患者P = 0.805，对照组P = 0.957）。FEV1/FVC%、FEV1/FEV3%和FEV1/FEV6%的ROC曲线下面积也具有可比性。
在评估哮喘患者的气道阻塞时，FEV3和FEV6是FVC准确可靠的替代指标。
