Application of peak expiratory flow rate in asthmatic children

Objective To study the clinical application of the peak expiratory flow rate( PEFR) in children with asthma.Methods The PEFRs of 43 cases of asthma at the acute stage were measured to guide the clinical grading and therapy by the optimum individual PEFR of the patients at the remission stage, and the descending rate and warning value of individual PEFR were determined to investigate the relationship between the individual PEFR descending rate and the asthma attack conditions in the standard and nonstandard monitoring groups.Results At the asthma attack stage, the clinical symptoms became severe with PEFR declining; at the remission stage, the preventive application of drugs was based on the changes of the individual PEEF descending rate . The case number and frequency of asthma attack and the cases subjected to moderate or severe attacks in the standard group were 15 %,23.5 % and 25 % respectively; while those in the nonstandard group were 43.5 %, 75.5 % and 76.9 % respectively, which showed a significant difference( P 0.01).Conclusions The PEFR could be used as the basis for asthma diagnosis and its severity grading to guide the treatment. The individual PEFR descending rate could reflect the changes of the disease conditions more sensitively than PEFR variation rate and it could be regarded as the warning of asthma attack, which indicates the need of preventive application of drugs beneficial to the decrease of attack times and recovery of pulmonary function.