The pulmonary index score as a clinical assessment tool for acute childhood asthma.
BACKGROUND
Asthma in the pediatric population imposes a significant burden on the Australian health care system. The lack of a standardized asthma assessment tool is an area that needs to be addressed.


OBJECTIVE
To validate the pulmonary index score (PIS) against the National Asthma Council Guidelines (NACG) asthma assessment.


METHODS
The project was approved by The Children's Hospital at Westmead Human Research Ethics Committee. Sixty-five patients aged 1 to 12 years with acute asthma were assessed independently using both the PIS and the NACG on presentation to the emergency department.


RESULTS
These results indicate that the PIS (1) has high internal consistency (Cronbach α = .835); (2) correlates well with the NACG, with significant differences in PIS values across different NACG severity categories; (3) predicts with good sensitivity (85% for nonmild cases and 88% for severe cases) and specificity (75% for nonmild cases and 77% for severe cases) the various categories of asthma severity according to the NACG; and (4) significantly differs between admitted (mean PIS = 8.4) and nonadmitted (mean PIS = 5.0) patients.


CONCLUSIONS
Use of the PIS may provide an objective and standardized approach to the assessment and monitoring of asthma in children.
Emergency Department, Children's Hospital at Westmead, Sydney, Australia. shangyuh@gmail.com
Peter
P
Hsu
Lawrence T
LT
Lam
Gary
G
Browne
D000208:Acute Disease; D001249:Asthma / Q000175:diagnosis*; D001315:Australia; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006776:Hospitals, Pediatric; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D056152:Respiratory Rate; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012720:Severity of Illness Index