There is an art to producing a great Spirometry Report. Here are the most important features to be aware to produce a good quality report.
1. Make sure you have the following important information on your report.
Name of Clinic
Address
Phone Number
RSHQ number (for practices accredited to do Queensland Coal mines)
2. Be very specific about the Height
Make sure you're measuring barefoot and to the decimal point. For example, 171.4cm etc., not just 171cm.
3. Check you are using the most appropriate reference equations for individuals with mixed ethnicity.
Choosing the most appropriate reference value for individuals can be difficult, particularly for people with mixed ethnicity. Good data is still lacking for many populations.
Check out the table below which shows the populations for which each of the GLi-2012 equations are known to be representative.
If you can't find the person's correct ethnicity from the limited options, then "Other" is to be used. You must comment on their ethnicity in your comment section at the bottom. Also ensure that correct Ethnicity is allocated in the Spiro program and on Carelever Form. This ensures your report and the results can be interpreted with awareness of this increased uncertainty.
4. Make sure you have your settings for Predicted and Interpretation right.
The settings we need you to use are as follows:
Predicted set to Quanjer GLI 2012
Interpretation set to Gold (2008)/Hardie
5. Check your software program is up to date.
Are you using the most up-to-date software program and version?
6. The Quality of the Spirometry Curve matters.
A quality of spirometry curves has key features. This is how to determine whether your test is Acceptable / Valid:
vertical rise (no hesitation at the start)
sharp pointed peak (no rounded or flat peak)
smooth descent to baseline (no inconsistent variable wobbles)
plateau at end >1 sec where <25ml or at 15+ secs
FIVC not greater than FVC more than 5%
Our Tip:
The new Spiro software update will help assist in determining acceptable curves, giving Green, Yellow and Red faces; however, you should still be looking at your curves and determining acceptability. Are your curves meeting this criterion? If they are not, you need to continue with more trials (up to Max 8 trials) or comment on why these are the best available trials.
7. We need THREE acceptable trials before you can assess Repeatability/Reproducibility.
We require 3 acceptable flow volume loops based on the above criteria BEFORE you assess the numbers for repeatability.
8. There are two things to double check when assessing Repeatability/Reproducibility.
Are your 2 best FVC within 150mls?
And are your 2 best FEV1 within 150mls?
Note that these results do not need to be from the same trials.
