Publication date: May 30, 2025
Background/Objectives: Patients recovering from COVID-19 often experience persistent respiratory symptoms, necessitating pulmonary function monitoring. While clinical spirometry is the gold standard, home spirometry offers a remote alternative. This study evaluated the validity of an ultrasonic home-based spirometer for monitoring lung function in post-COVID-19 pneumonia patients over 12 weeks. Methods: This prospective study included 30 post-COVID pneumonia patients who underwent clinical spirometry at weeks 4, 8 and 12. Participants performed weekly home spirometry using the SpiroHome Personal device. Agreement between home and clinical spirometry was assessed using a Bland-Altman analysis, intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs), and Pearson correlation coefficients. Pulmonary function changes over time were analyzed using repeated measures ANOVA. Results: Home spirometry showed strong agreement with clinical spirometry for forced vital capacity (FVC) and forced expiratory volume in the first second (FEV1), with ICC values exceeding 0. 92. The Bland-Altman analysis demonstrated minimal bias, though limits of agreement exceeded the clinically accepted threshold of +/-150 mL. FEV1/FVC ratios showed greater variability. Pulmonary function improved significantly over 12 weeks for both methods (p < 0. 002). Patient adherence to home spirometry remained high, with a median of 18. 50 sessions [IQR: 15. 00-26. 00] and an overall compliance rate of 98. 33% +/- 9. 13%. Conclusions: Home spirometry provides reliable pulmonary function measurements, particularly for FVC and FEV1, supporting its role as a remote monitoring tool. Despite minor variability in FEV1/FVC, home spirometry enables frequent assessment of lung function recovery, potentially reducing hospital visits and improving patient management.
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| Concepts | Keywords |
|---|---|
| Basel | eHealth |
| Patient | home spirometry |
| Pneumonia | post-COVID pulmonary functions |
| Ultrasonic | telemonitoring |
| Weekly |
Semantics
| Type | Source | Name |
|---|---|---|
| disease | MESH | COVID-19 |
| drug | DRUGBANK | Gold |
| disease | MESH | pneumonia |
| disease | IDO | role |
| disease | MESH | Long Covid |
| drug | DRUGBANK | Coenzyme M |
| disease | MESH | dyspnea |
| disease | MESH | acute respiratory distress syndrome |
| drug | DRUGBANK | Bentiromide |
| disease | MESH | infection |
| disease | MESH | sequelae |
| disease | MESH | abnormalities |
| drug | DRUGBANK | Carbon monoxide |
| disease | MESH | respiratory diseases |
| disease | MESH | asthma |
| pathway | KEGG | Asthma |
| disease | MESH | COPD |
| disease | MESH | cystic fibrosis |
| drug | DRUGBANK | Methionine |
| disease | IDO | quality |
| disease | MESH | anxiety |
| disease | MESH | uncertainty |
| disease | MESH | idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis |
| drug | DRUGBANK | Medical air |
| drug | DRUGBANK | Cysteamine |
| disease | MESH | syndrome |
| disease | MESH | Allergy |
| disease | MESH | Interstitial Lung Diseases |
| disease | MESH | Cyst |
| drug | DRUGBANK | Bemotrizinol |
| drug | DRUGBANK | Efavirenz |