Comparison betweenpeak expiratory flow rate (pefr) and forced expiratory volume in first second (fev1) in monitoring the airway status of students studying in college of applied medical sciences, Riyadh

Lung function tests are considered as one of the major diagnostic technique in respiratory care to assess the ventilatory status of patients. Forced expiratory volumes in first second (FEV1) and peak expiratory flow (PEF) are used extensively to measure airway status. The purpose of the study is to evaluate the airway status of students in KSAU-HS. Objectives: The objective of the study is to find out the variation in FEV1 in proportion to the variation in PEFR, compare the PEFR value in peak flow meter and spirometery and to find out whether there is any relationship with PEFR, FEV1 and vital signs. Methodology: The study was conducted in respiratory therapy lab. Out of 120 students from COAMS, a sample size of 95 students were fixed but conducted in 71 subjects due to various limitations. The data collected was entered in Microsoft Excel and exported to SPSS version-22 for doing analysis of data. Result: The subjects were the students from various programs of COAMS, Riyadh. The minimum age of the participant was 20 years old and the maximum was 23 years old (mean age 21.1).Vital signs were recorded prior to study. A comparison of Peak Expiratory Flow Rate (PEFR) using peak flow meter and spirometry showed a statistical significance (p value=.019). A PEFR value in peak flow meter and FEV1 in spirometry also was statistically significant (P=.006). Conclusion: There are findings in favor and against of this study. This study suggest that PEF value obtained by a peak flow meter cannot substitute for value obtained from FEV1 by a spirometry and cannot predict the accurate reversibility of the airway status in asthmatic and COPD patients. Further peak flow meter can be used as a continuous assessment to determine the diurnal variation of the airway status. There were many limitations in this study.