[Guidelines towards examination of the lung function in children (author's transl)]

Examination of the lung function in school children is complicated and necessitates a considerable amount of technical equipment. The general practitioner carrying out the examination should not forget that a detailed clinical examination and a good stethoscope can provide important information for the diagnosis, differential diagnosis and further therapy of the child. The range of so-called simple electronic spirometers with a print-out of data tempts practitioner to use them in the diagnostics of the functioning of the lung. There is, however, considerable danger that these instruments lead more often in wrong results. A simple bell spirograph with a recording unit together with a helium analysis instrument allows the doctor to make a complete spirogram which gives exact information. In addition, the doctor requires a special lung laboratory to which to transfer children for a period of supervision and larger. The doctor should be aware that an absence of clinical symptoms, proved in practice, does not necessarily mean that the lung is working normally. Indication of an extended examination of the lungs can be deduced from a blood gas analysis, which can, with some practice be determined in the office. A reduced pO2 or an increased pCO2 can indeed indicate a disorder even when the child appears on examination to be clinically healthy. Instruments new commonly in use for analyzing the blood gas with capillary blood can also be introduced into the office.