0
Sign In  | Subscribe
1 April 2008, Vol 148, No. 7>
Summaries for Patients | 1 April 2008

Screening for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: U.S. Preventive Services Task Force Recommendations FREE

[+] Article and Author Information

The summary below is from the full reports titled “Screening for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Using Spirometry: U.S. Preventive Services Task Force Recommendation Statement” and “Screening for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Using Spirometry: Summary of the Evidence for the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.” They are in the 1 April 2008 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine (volume 148, pages 529-534 and pages 535-543). The first report was written by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force; the second report was written by K. Lin, B. Watkins, T. Johnson, J.A. Rodriguez, and M.B. Barton.


Ann Intern Med. 2008;148(7):I-46. doi:10.7326/0003-4819-148-7-200804010-00214
Text Size: A A A

Who developed these guidelines?

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) is a group of health experts that reviews published research and makes recommendations about preventive health care.

What is the problem and what is known about it so far?

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a disease of the lungs and the breathing tubes that bring air to the lungs (airways). The disease usually occurs in cigarette smokers. People with COPD cough and get short of breath. Damage to the lungs and symptoms slowly worsen over time. Doctors treat COPD with drugs that widen and decrease swelling in the airways. Oxygen therapy can help some people with COPD. Pulmonary rehabilitation, which involves patient education and exercise, is another type of COPD treatment.

Spirometry is a breathing test that can diagnose COPD on the basis of a measurement called FEV1 (forced expiratory volume in 1 second), which is the amount of air that a person exhales in 1 second compared with that of a healthy person of the same age and size. A person with an FEV1 of 60% exhales about 60% the amount that a typical, healthy person the same age and size exhales in 1 second. Spirometry can sometimes find COPD in people who do not know they have the disease. For this reason, some people wonder whether doctors should include spirometry as part of routine preventive health care.

How did the USPSTF develop these recommendations?

The authors reviewed studies about the benefits and harms of using spirometry to test people who have no symptoms for COPD. Benefits included preventing COPD symptoms. Also, abnormal spirometry results may motivate smokers to quit. Harms included labeling people who might never develop symptoms with the diagnosis of COPD and exposing them to side effects of COPD treatments.

What did the authors find?

Available studies show that spirometry can be helpful in diagnosing COPD in patients who present with breathing symptoms but is not helpful in patients without symptoms. There is little evidence that spirometry helps to select treatment or motivates smokers to quit.

What does the USPSTF suggest that patients and doctors do?

Adults without symptoms should not have routine spirometry to screen for COPD.

What are the cautions related to these recommendations?

These recommendations do not apply to people who have such symptoms as cough or shortness of breath that might be due to COPD. Recommendations may change as new studies become available.

Figures

Tables

References

Letters

NOTE:
Citing articles are presented as examples only. In non-demo SCM6 implementation, integration with CrossRef’s “Cited By” API will populate this tab (http://www.crossref.org/citedby.html).
Compression-Only CPR: Pushing the Science Forward
Cone
AAM 2010;304:1493-1495.
All you need to read in the other general jounals
BMJ 2010;341:c5893-c1494.

Comments

Submit a Comment
Submit a Comment

Summary for Patients

Clinical Slide Sets

Terms of Use

The In the Clinic® slide sets are owned and copyrighted by the American College of Physicians (ACP). All text, graphics, trademarks, and other intellectual property incorporated into the slide sets remain the sole and exclusive property of the ACP. The slide sets may be used only by the person who downloads or purchases them and only for the purpose of presenting them during not-for-profit educational activities. Users may incorporate the entire slide set or selected individual slides into their own teaching presentations but may not alter the content of the slides in any way or remove the ACP copyright notice. Users may make print copies for use as hand-outs for the audience the user is personally addressing but may not otherwise reproduce or distribute the slides by any means or media, including but not limited to sending them as e-mail attachments, posting them on Internet or Intranet sites, publishing them in meeting proceedings, or making them available for sale or distribution in any unauthorized form, without the express written permission of the ACP. Unauthorized use of the In the Clinic slide sets will constitute copyright infringement.

Toolkit

Buy This Article

to gain full access to the content and tools.

Want to Subscribe?

Learn more about subscription options

Register Now for a free account
Advertisement

Related Content

Customize your page view by dragging & repositioning the boxes below.

In the Clinic
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
Ann Intern Med. 2011;154(7):ITC4-1.
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
Ann Intern Med. 2008;148(5):ITC3-1.
Topic Collections

Annals of Internal Medicine

Other Resources

Copyright © 2013 The American College of Physicians. All Rights Reserved.
Print ISSN: 0003-4819 | Online ISSN: 1539-3704

Buy This Article

to gain full access to the content and tools.

Want to Subscribe?

Learn more about subscription options

Register Now for a free account
Forgot your password?
Enter your username and email address. We'll send you a reminder to the email address on record.
(Required)
(Required)