Impact of the pulmonary ventilation function on the prognosis of suspected asthma patients: a retrospective observational study

Abstract

Objective

Asthma is a common chronic respiratory diseases, and the relationship between pulmonary ventilation function and the prognosis of patients with suspected asthma is not well understood. This study aims to explore the impact of pulmonary ventilation functions on the prognosis of patients with suspected asthma.

Methods

This retrospective observational study included patients with suspected asthma who were diagnosed and treated at the Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine between August 2015 and January 2020. The primary outcome of interest was improvement in asthma symptoms, as measured by bronchial provocation test (BPT) results within one year after diagnosis. The impact of pulmonary ventilation functions on prognosis was explored by multivariable logistic regression analysis.

Results

Seventy-two patients were included in the study. Patients with normal (OR = 0.123, p = .004) or generally normal (OR = 0.075, p = .039) pulmonary ventilation function were more likely to achieve improvement in asthma symptoms compared with patients with mild obstruction. There were no significant differences between the improvement and non-improvement groups in baseline characteristics.

Conclusion

These results suggest that suspected asthma patients with normal or generally normal pulmonary ventilation function are more likely to achieve improvement in asthma symptoms within one year compared to patients with mild obstruction.

Keywords:

• Bronchial provocation test
• suspicious positive result
• pulmonary ventilation function
• retrospective observational study
• asthma
• prognosis
• chronic respiratory disease
• spirometry
• forced expiratory volume
• forced vital capacity
• peak expiratory flow rate
• multivariable logistic regression analysis

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.

Additional information

Funding

This study is was supported by Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (Grant Number 2017A030313724), Scientific Research Project of Traditional Chinese Medicine Bureau of Guangdong Province (Grant number 20181125).