Diagnostic sensitivity of impulse oscillometry in early detection of patients exposed to risk factors chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases

Impulse oscillometry (IOS) is a method that does not depend on the cooperation of the patient and can detect small airway diseases with higher sensitivity than spirometry. However, the clinical application value of IOS in the screening of patients exposed to risk factors COPD and early diagnosis remains unclear.  The aim of this study is to evaluate diagnostic sensitivity of IOS in the early detection of patients exposed to risk factors COPD.

A prospective cross-sectional study was conducted in Rasoul Akram Hospital, Tehran, Iran, from 2013 to 2015. 28 patients with COPD risk factors and normal spirometry participated in the study. The IOS was performed. We obtained the respiratory resistance and impedance of 5 Hz (R5) and 20 Hz (R20) and 5 Hz (Z5), respectively. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 17 using Chi-square and two independent sample t-test. Spearman correlation test was used to measure the correlation of oscillometry parameters in the diagnosis of COPD. P-value <0.05 was considered significant for all statistical analyses.

The mean patient age was 55.50±11.27 years. In this study, the sensitivity of Z5, R5, and R20 was respectively 28.5%, 25%, and 31.5%. All oscillometry parameters were significantly correlated with each other but none of the oscillometry parameters showed significant correlations with FEV1/FVC (rZ5=0.018, rR5=0.082, rR20=0.041 and PZ5=0.932, PR5=0.711, P R20=0.850). According to the results, only 9 patients (32.5%) with normal values of FEV1/FVC had abnormal values of oscillometry.

IOS has a low sensitivity and cannot be used in the screening of early-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.