title: Comparison between a national and a foreign manovacuometer for nasal inspiratory pressure measurement.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  the measurement of nasal inspiratory pressure, known as the sniff test, was developed as a new test of inspiratory muscle strength, mainly used in neuromuscular conditions. The test is easy to be performed and noninvasive. Despite the clinical importance of assessment of nasal inspiratory pressure a national equipment is not available to assess it.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  to compare a national with a foreign manovacuometer in assessing the nasal inspiratory pressure (sniff test) in healthy subjects.
  
  
  METHODS
  18 subjects were evaluated (age 21.44 ± 2.8 years, BMI 23.4 ± 2.5 kg/m² , FVC 102.1 ±1 0.3% pred, FEV1 98.4 ± 1% pred). We performed two measures of nasal inspiratory pressure using two different manovacuometer: a national and a foreign. All subjects performed the tests at the same time of day, in different days being the order of the testes established randomly. It was used the paired t test, Pearson correlation and the Bland-Altman plots for statistical analysis considering a 5% significance level.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The averages observed for the two measures of nasal pressures were 125 ± 42.4 cmH2O for the foreign equipment, and 131.7 ± 2 8.7 cmH2O for the national equipment. The Pearson correlation showed significant correlation between the means with a coefficient of r=0.63. The t test showed no significant differences between both measurements (p>0,05). The BIAS ± SD found in Bland-Altman plot analysis was 7 cmH2O with limits of agreement between -57.5 cmH2O and 71.5 cmH2O.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  the results suggest that the national electronic device is feasible and safe to the sniff test measurement in healthy subjects.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Fisioterapia, Faculdades Nordeste, Fortaleza, CE, Brasil.
authors.forename: Fernanda G
authors.initials: FG
authors.lastname: Severino
authors.forename: Vanessa R
authors.initials: VR
authors.lastname: Resqueti
authors.forename: Selma S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Bruno
authors.forename: Ingrid G
authors.initials: IG
authors.lastname: Azevedo
authors.forename: Rudolfo H G
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Vieira
authors.forename: Guilherme A F
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Fregonezi
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D001239:Inhalation / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D053580:Muscle Strength; D009666:Nose; D012129:Respiratory Function Tests / Q000295:instrumentation*; D012132:Respiratory Muscles / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult