Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2017. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Methodol. Dec 26, 2017; 7(4): 129-138
Published online Dec 26, 2017. doi: 10.5662/wjm.v7.i4.129
Is forced oscillation technique the next respiratory function test of choice in childhood asthma
Afaf Alblooshi, Alia Alkalbani, Ghaya Albadi, Hassib Narchi, Graham Hall
Afaf Alblooshi, Ghaya Albadi, Hassib Narchi, Department of Pediatrics, United Arab Emirates University, Al-Ain, United Arab Emirates
Alia Alkalbani, Department of Pediatrics, Tawam Hospital, Al-Ain, United Arab Emirates
Graham Hall, Department of Children’s Lung Health, Telethon Kids Institute, Perth 6000, Australia
Graham Hall, School of Physiotherapy and Exercise Science, Curtin University and Centre of Child Health Research, University of Western Australia, Perth 6000, Australia
Author contributions: Alblooshi A developed the framework for the review; Alblooshi A and Alkalbani A wrote the manuscript with guidance; Narchi H and Hall G designed overall direction from; all authors contributed to the final version of the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflict of interest to declare.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Afaf Alblooshi, Professor, Department of Pediatrics, United Arab Emirates University, P.O. Box 17666, Al-Ain, United Arab Emirates. afaf.alblooshi@uaeu.ac.ae
Telephone: +971-3-7137433 Fax: +971-3-7672022
Received: February 27, 2017
Peer-review started: February 28, 2017
First decision: September 4, 2017
Revised: October 8, 2017
Accepted: November 1, 2017
Article in press: November 1, 2017
Published online: December 26, 2017
Core Tip

Core tip: Respiratory diseases, such as asthma, are especially common in children. Although their diagnosis and management are facilitated by using spirometry in older children, the use of the latter remains limited in younger children because of their inability to perform forced expiratory manoeuvre. Therefore, the use of new methods which require minimal effort and cooperation from children, such as the forced oscillation technique (FOT) is a welcome and promising addition to identify children with underlying airway function abnormalities. In this article, we review the available literature on the use of FOT in childhood asthma.