THE PRACTICE OF SPIROMETRY USE FOR COPD PATIENTS AT CHEST CLINIC OF ST. PAUL’S HOSPITAL MILLENNIUM MEDICAL COLLEGE, ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA: A 5 YEARS CHART REVIEW

Abstract

Abstract Background: Guidelines recommend the diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) to be confirmed by spirometry in all suspected patients. Despite this spirometry underuse use has been reported in many surveys done in western countries. This can lead to misdiagnosis since the accuracy of diagnosing COPD without spirometry is not clearly known In Africa little is known about the use of spirometry. This study aimed to assess the practice of spirometry use for COPD patients at chest clinic of St. Paul’s hospital millennium medical college (SPHMMC). Methods: A cross-sectional study based on data collected from charts of adult COPD patients having follow-up in chest clinic of SPHMMC. All charts of COPD patients from 2016- 2020 were reviewed by trained internal medicine residents using structured questionnaires The data was cleaned and entered into computer using EPI DATA version 3.1 and then exported to Statistical Package of Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25 for analysis. Categorical data was analyzed as frequencies with percentages and continuous data was analyzed as means with standard deviations. Result: 154 patients with clinical diagnosis of COPD were studied. 92 patients (59.7%) had diagnostic spirometry but no patient had follow-up spirometry. The diagnosis of 37 patients (40.2%) was rejected by spirometry. Conclusion: Substandard use of spirometry was found. Relying on clinical diagnosis was found to lead to misdiagnosis in many patients