Pulmonary function studies in healthy school boys of West Bengal

The establishment of normal standards of dynamic pulmonary function measurements in the form of prediction equations will serve as a remedial measure of different aspects of obstructive pulmonary diseases, especially in children. With a view to achieving the target, dynamic pulmonary function measurements were undertaken on 328 healthy school-going children of West Bengal having age ranging between 9 and 18 years. All the spirometric measurements except PEFR were taken with the help of a 9 l closed-circuit type expirograph following the methods and techniques of American Thoracic Society. PEFR was measured by Wright Peak Flow Meter. Prediction equations were derived on the basis of age and height for all the pulmonary function measurements except FEV1% and FET. The prediction equations for FVC, FEV1, MVVF, and PEFR were reliable, but relative variability of predicted FEF25-75% and FEF75-85% was very large. A comparative study of FVC, FEV1, and PEFR values of our subjects, standardized for age and height, was much closer to the boys of Delhi in FVC but higher than South Indian boys in FEV1, North and South Indian boys in PEFR. In an attempt to compare FVC and FEV1 values of our subjects with foreign populations, it is revealed that boys of our study were much lower than American (White), European, and Jordanian boys but comparable with those of Chinese and Libyan boys.