Chest
Clinical InvestigationsAsthmaEffects of Short-term 28% and 100% Oxygen on Paco2 and Peak Expiratory Flow Rate in Acute Asthma: A Randomized Trial
Section snippets
Subjects
We recruited all adult patients with acute asthma who were seen in two emergency departments of Uruguay (Hospital Central de las Fuerzas Armadas in Montevideo, and Hospital de Paysandú, in Paysandú) over a 6-month period (March to August 2002). The inclusion/exclusion criteria for patients were as follows: (1) diagnosis criteria of asthma of the American Thoracic Society16; (2) age from 18 to 50 years; (3) peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) < 60% of predicted value; and (4) patients were excluded
Results
A total of 79 consecutive adults with an acute exacerbation of asthma were recruited for entry into this study. Two patients were excluded because they were unable to maintain a Spo2 ≥ 90%. Seventy-seven adults were randomly assigned to treatment: 38 patients to the 28% group and 39 patients to the 100% group. Three patients (two patients in the 28% group, and one patient in the 100% group) refused the use of the facemask. Finally, 74 patients (36 patients in the 28% group, and 38 patients in
Discussion
To our knowledge, this is the first randomized controlled trial that provided data on the effect of two oxygen concentrations on Paco2 and PEFR in adult patients with acute severe asthma. The results showed that 100% of inspired oxygen resulted in a significant increase in Paco2. Forty-two percent of the 100% oxygen group patients had increases in Paco2 averaging 5.0 mm Hg (range, 2.4 to 14.3 mm Hg). As shown in Figure 1, Figure 2, Paco2 during oxygen administration highly correlated with the Pa
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