[Peak expiratory flow in 6-12 year-old children from Merida, Yucatan, Mexico]

Assessment of pulmonary function may be done by several procedures, such as spirometric and flow metric ones.

To obtain a peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) percentilar curve in healthy schoolchildren of both sexes of Merida, Yucatan, Mexico.

We carried out a transversal and observational study in schoolchildren between 6 and 12 years old of both sexes. They were evaluated by a demographic questionnaire that included age, weight, height and health status, and then the PEFR was assessed using a mini-Wright Peak Flow Meter recording the highest of the three numbers achieved.

We included 621 healthy schoolchildren between 6 and 12 years old of both sexes, 321 girls and 300 boys, of two schools that were selected by random sampling. The media age was 9 +/- 2 years old, height 128 +/- 10 cm, weight 30.34 +/- 9.75 kg, corporal surface 1.049 +/- 0.22 m2, and PEFR 293.72 +/- 66 L/min. When we compared the PEFR with age, height and weight, we saw that height was a more reliable predictor than age or weight, since higher values of R were obtained. There was not a significant difference of PEFR between boys and girls.

Our results show that the pulmonary function values increase proportionally to height, which showed the higher correlation to FEM.