Abstract
Background
Measurement of respiratory function is important both in epidemiological studies and for the diagnosis of respiratory diseases in early life. Oscillometry requires minimal subject cooperation and is promising for the assessment of respiratory function in young children.
Aim
To assess the feasibility and reproducibility of oscillometric measurements in 3-year-old children.
Methods
Measurements were performed on 242 children who participated in the 3-year visit of the SEPAGES cohort, median (Q1, Q3) age: 3.1yr (3.0, 3.2); height: 95.4cm (95.0, 97.5), using the tremoFlo device with a 7 – 41Hz waveform. Valid tests were defined as per recommendations. Resistance at 7Hz (R7) data with a CV<15% were considered reproducible. We compared the individual mean of R7 based on all technically acceptable measures (R7_all) to the one based on the 2 first measures (R7_2) and computed the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) between R7_all and R7_2.
Results
225 children (94.9 %) had at least 2, and 209 (88.2%) at least 3 technically acceptable R7 measurements with a CV<15%. Of the latter, 197 (81.4%) did not require any measurement exclusion. The overall CV of R7 was: 6.7% (4.1, 10.1). The median (Q1-Q3) difference between R7_all and R7_2 was -0.006 (-0.029, 0.018) cmH2O.s/L, with an ICC=0.97.
Conclusions
Our preliminary analysis demonstrates excellent feasibility and reproducibility of oscillometry in 3-year-old children. These data suggest that 2 reproducible measurements may yield a comparable outcome vs. the recommended 3.
Funding
PNREST Anses, 2018/1/264 ; ERS CRC-2013-02 INCIRCLE (International Collaboration to Improve Respiratory Health in Children)
