Peak Flow

WIPER

Hi, my name is _______, I'm a doctor here. It's very nice to meet you.

Find the Problem
I understand you have symptoms that might suggest asthma. In order to rule help us to rule in or rule out the diagnosis we do a test called the Peak Flow test. Have you had this test before? Are you happy with your understanding of asthma? Are you happy with doing this test?

This is a peak flow meter. It's just a simple tube that measures how well the air flows out of your lungs, and whether you have any difficulty pushing it out. If you have asthma this shows as being less than normal for a person of your height, sex and age.

Demonstrate
I'll show you how to use it, to help you understand how to do it.
First we reset the pointer to make sure that it's one zero.
We stand up for the test. We put a fresh mouthpiece into the meter.
Breathe in fully deeply, as much as you can. Hold the meter level in front of you making sure your fingers don't cover over the pointer. Make a tight seal with your mouth on the mouthpiece. Blow as hard as you can and as fast as you can, like blowing out the candles on a cake. We're not concerned about how long or how much you blow out. Okay? Like so.

We'll do the test 3 times, and take the highest reading as your score.

General Advice

We record like thus and if we record it in a diary we can keep of track of how your breathing is throughout the day. Asthma tends to vary quite characteristically through the day, and can help us make a diagnosis and see how you are doing on medication.

The best time to take a peak flow are first thing in the morning, and before you go to bed. Also take it when you are experiencing symptoms such as coughing or wheezing.

Repeat Relevant Parts

Would you like to have a go?

ICE
Do you have any questions, concerns or expectations?

We'll need to follow-up to see how you've coped with the medication and if your symptoms have improved.


What factors affect PEFR?
- height
- age
- sex
- acute and chronic resp disease
- smoking