LUNOKID: can numerical American Thoracic Society/European Respiratory Society quality criteria replace visual inspection of spirometry?

The gold standard for assessing quality of forced expiratory manoeuvres is visual inspection by an expert. American Thoracic Society/European Respiratory Society numerical quality criteria (NQC) include back-extrapolated volume (BEV), repeatability and forced expiratory time (FET). Equipment currently available provides feedback tempting the investigator to use NQC as pass fail criterion. To investigate whether using NQC instead of visual acceptability is a valid option, we analysed data from a multicentre national reference study in Germany of children aged 4-18 years. Spirometry was performed under field conditions. Receiver operating characteristic analysis was used to assess performance of BEV, repeatability, FET and a combination thereof in relation to visual acceptability. We included data from 3133 healthy Caucasians in the analyses; 72% delivered at least two visually acceptable manoeuvres. Of these, 59% would have been rejected based on combined NQC, mainly because the FET criterion was not feasible. Specificity of the NQC was generally low (BEV 10%, repeatability 30% and PET 50%). Receiver operating characteristic analysis showed that a combination of the three measures could reach at best a sensitivity of 90% and specificity of 56%. We conclude that visual control is mandatory and NQC may help obtain the best possible results, but a fixed cut-off for PET should be abandoned.