Abstract Background: Fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO), impulse oscillometry (IOS), and spirometry are three types of noninvasive methods for assessment of pediatric lung function, which could be used to diagnose and evaluate childhood asthma. This study aims to evaluate the correlation among these three methods for childhood asthma evaluation. Methods: This retrospective study utilized data from the China Medical University Hospital, Clinical Research Data Repository. Asthma patients aged 6–12 years old who underwent FeNO, IOS, and spirometry testing on the same day were first identified. The data from FeNO, IOS, and spirometry reports were first extracted from the report text. Thereby, the correlation matrices between FeNO and IOS (resistance and reactance) and between FeNO and spirometry (FEV1/FVC ratio) were plotted. The Pearson correlation coefficient ( r ) and P value were subsequently calculated. Results: A total of 337 children with asthma aged 6–12 (male to female 60.8%:39.2%) were ultimately included in the study. The median of FeNO values was 21 ppb, and the median of FEV1/FVC and FEV1 values was 87% and 98.2%, respectively. A statistically significant negative correlation between FeNO and FEV1/FVC was observed ( r = −0.174, P = 0.002). However, there was no significant correlation between FeNO and IOS parameters. Conclusions: FeNO, IOS, and spirometry are important methods for evaluation of childhood asthma. In this study, the FEV1/FVC ratio was observed to have a negative correlation with FeNO. However, there is no statistically significant correlation between FeNO and IOS parameters. Therefore, this study concludes that a combination of all three pulmonary functional tests, FeNO, IOS, and spirometry, is the best strategy for evaluating childhood asthma.
Wu et al. (Tue,) studied this question.
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