[The usefulness of the Peak Flow Meter for assessing patients with acute respiratory disease]. / Utilidad del "Peak Flow Meter" para la valoración de enfermos respiratorios agudos.

The aim of the study was to evaluate the utility of the extrahospital use of "Peak Flow Meter" (PFM) in patients with an acute respiratory disease. 70 patients were studied. PFM, arterial gasometry, physical examination and dyspnea evaluation were performed on all of them. The PFM were posteriorly transformed into the rate related to the ideal result, following the Nunn and Gregg equation (1989). We found an association between the PFM rate and the different arterial blood gas test results, and a relation to the degree of dyspnea and the listening of sibilant rales. There was more significance with the rate of PFM than with the PFM transformed in all cases, and only association was found between arterial blood changes and PFM. We concluded that all patients with an acute respiratory disease with a rate of PFM greater than 50% should be evaluated carefully because of the probability of existing hypoxemia, and those with rate of less than 20% must be referred to hospital.