title: Spirometry in the diagnosis of asthma in children.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To review the diagnostic accuracy of lung function measurements made using spirometry for childhood asthma, recent guidelines for the measurement and interpretation of spirometric lung function tests and recent developments for diagnosing asthma.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Measurements of lung function and bronchial lability made using spirometry may not perform any better than other tests such as skin prick testing, or measurements of exhaled nitric oxide for diagnosing asthma. New guidelines are available.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Spirometry is a simple, robust and widely available tool for investigating lung function. There are published guidelines for making measurements and their interpretation. The place of spirometry in the diagnosis of asthma, however, needs clarification. The diagnostic profiles of measurements of bronchodilator responsiveness and bronchial hyperreactivity made using spirometry, although reasonable, are not perfect. In schoolchildren, they are no better than knowledge of aeroallergen sensitization when considering a diagnosis of asthma.
authors.affiliation: Department of Paediatric Respiratory Medicine, Royal London Hospital, London, UK. i.dundas@qmul.ac.uk
authors.forename: Isobel
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Dundas
authors.forename: Sheila
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mckenzie
mesh_terms: D001249:Asthma / Q000175:diagnosis*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006801:Humans; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013147:Spirometry / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards