International journal of clinical practice
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Int. J. Clin. Pract. · Feb 2009
Multicenter StudyPrevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases in general clinics in terms of FEV1/FVC.
The prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) continues to increase all over the world. Nonetheless, COPD is often misdiagnosed in general clinics because of insufficient use of spirometry. ⋯ We showed that there are potentially a number of cases with COPD that are undiagnosed by general physicians in Japan. Measuring airflow limitation by spirometry in smokers with coexisting diseases, such as hypertension and chronic hepatitis, may be very beneficial because COPD is thought to be a systemic disease. The distribution of spirometers to general clinics is definitely needed to detect undiagnosed COPD.