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Clinical diagnosis of current asthma: predictive value of respiratory symptoms in the SAPALDIA study

¹ Centre Valaisan de Pneumologie, Montana, Suisse, ² Institut de Médecine Sociale et Préventive, Bâle, Suisse, ³ Dept de Médecine Interne, Hôpital Universitaire de Bâle, Bâle, Suisse and ⁴ Division de Pneumologie, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, Lausanne, Suisse

CORRESPONDENCE: Dr J. Tschopp PD, Centre Valaisan de Pneumologie, 3962, Montana, Suisse. Fax: 41 27603 81 81

Keywords: asthma, diagnostic sensitivity and specificity, positive and negative predictive value, prevalence, respiratory symptoms

Received: January 4, 2000
Accepted September 4, 2000

Bronchial asthma is a very common disease which often remains underdiagnosed. The aim of this study was to determine the predictive value of the most common respiratory symptoms and to explore the best symptom combinations to predict diagnosis of asthma.

A questionnaire comprising common respiratory symptoms was submitted to 9,651 subjects aged 18–60 yrs, randomly selected from the Swiss population, of whom 225 subjects (2.3%) had current asthma as confirmed by their general practitioner. Based on these data the authors calculated the predictive values of single symptoms and symptom combinations to diagnose asthma.

Wheezing was the most sensitive single symptom (sensitivity 75%). Simple symptoms such as wheezing with dyspnoea, chronic phlegm or chronic cough had specificity greater than 95%. Wheezing with dyspnoea (WD) or nocturnal dyspnoea (ND) had the best positive predictive value (PPV) as isolated symptoms (24% and 21%, respectively). When combining symptoms, wheezing associated with daily dyspnoea at rest or nocturnal dyspnoea showed the best PPV (42% and 39%, respectively), almost double single symptoms such as WD or ND. Wheezing associated with at least two of the three nocturnal symptoms (nocturnal dyspnoea, nocturnal cough or nocturnal chest tightness) had a sensitivity of 80% to diagnose asthma.

In conclusion, respiratory symptoms obtained by medical history are reliable predictors of asthma. The findings suggest that particular combinations of symptoms are clinically useful in the differential diagnosis of asthma.

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