Abstract

Serial recording of peak expiratory flow (PEF)has been proposed as an interesting means in the investigation of occupational asthma (OA). 1, 2 The use of this means of assessment has lately been the object of reappraisal and was presented in a recent statement. 2 The advantages include its ability to assess patient's lung function outside the laboratory in a natural setting, the simplicity of measurement with inexpensive and handy devices, the feasibility in nonspecialized centers where specific challenges cannot be performed, and its usefulness in differentiating between nonoccupational and work-related asthma. The limitations of this type of testing include patient's motivation and honesty, organizational difficulties in having patient return to work, and requirement for rather long monitoring. Among these limitations, patient compliance, an aspect that has recently been assessed in two prospective studies, 3, 4 has been shown to be marginally superior to 50% only. It is unknown, however, whether this could have affected the within- and between-reader reproducibility of interpretation of graphs. We therefore decided to pool the data obtained from these two studies to assess the within and between-reader reproducibility of interpretation.

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