Oasys now has 3 methods for identifying occupational asthma, what are the strengths and weaknesses of each?

This table is taken from a talk given to the NIVA conference on occupational airways disease in Stockholm 2009, about diagnosing occupational asthma from serial peak flow records. It compares the strengths and weaknesses of the 3 main scores in the Oasys program.

A "+" signifies a strong point, "-" a weak point and "+/-" somewhere imbetween.

	Oasys Score	ABC	Timepoint
<4 readings/day	+	-	-
<8 readings/day	+	+/-	+/-
Variable waking time	+	+/-	-
Variable timed readings	+	+	-
Small changes	+/-	-	+
10-14 day record	-	+	+
<3 consecutive workdays	-	+	+

 

The Oasys score is the most tolerent of missing and mistimed readings, but requires longer records (at least 3 weeks) and at least 3 consecutive workdays in each work period. The timepoint analysis requires readings taken at the same times on work and rest days, both timepoint and ABC are best with 8 readings/day with at least 8 workdays and 3 restdays, but can cope with non-consecutive workdays better than the Oasys score.

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