[The accuracy of several brands of portable peak flow meter, and the predicted value of peak expiratory flow rate for children].

The accuracy, reproducibility and interdevice variability of 6 brands of peak flow meter were evaluated by using a flow generator. The accuracy was satisfiable except for Mini-Wright, which overread by up to 29%. It is essential to identify the brands to compare the data of peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) from different studies. The reproducibility was under 5%, reliable enough for personal monitoring. The low range models were inferior to the normal range models as a whole. There are some studies about the normal value of PEFR for Japanese children. They have drawn different linear equations to obtain the predicted value of PEFR from the body height. However, none of them can be the "gold standard".