SPIROMETRY FINDINGS IN SUBJECTS PRESENTING WITH DYSPNEA IN BANNU DISTRICT, PAKISTAN

Background: Dyspnea is a common symptom in patients presenting to emergency departments worldwide. The objective of the study was to determine the pattern of spirometry findings in subjects presenting with dyspnea in Bannu, KP, Pakistan. Materials & Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in Bannu Medical College, Bannu, KP, Pakistan from 1st December 2015 to 31st march 2018. Sample size was 4300 selected through convenient sampling technique. All patients with acute and chronic dyspnea were included. Any patient unable to perform spirometry, recently diagnosed smear positive pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB), recent myocardial infarction and any infectious disease patient were excluded. A self-administered proforma was used for data collection. The demographic variables were sex and age groups. The research variables were type of lung pathology, severity of obstructive lung pathology, severity of restrictive lung pathology, causes of obstructive lung pathology and causes of restrictive lung pathology. All variables being categorical were analyzed through count and percentages using spss version17. Results: Out of 4300 subjects, (55.72%) were males and (44.28%) were females. Two thousands four hundered and forty five (52.32%) had obstructive, (22.49%) restrictive, (12.9%) with mixed pattern and (4.3%) had normal spirometry. In obstructive patients bronchial asthma were (35.13%), COPD 741(30.3%) asthma-COPD overlap syndrome (ACOS) (9.48%), acute bronchitis (05.64%), bronchiectasis 173(7.07%) and unclear diagnosis (04.17%). In restrictive patients post pulmonary tuberculous fibrosis (PTB) were (33.77%), cardiovascular disorders (28.35%), interstitial lung diseases (17.79%), chest wall disorders (6.47%) and unclear diagnosis in 143(13.6%). Conclusion: Ninety five percent of individuals were having an abnormal spirometeric pattern. mostly old males were having bronchial asthma & COPD as obstructive and PTB & CVDs as restrictive lung disease.