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Robert Badgett, MD
University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio

David Tanaka, MD
University of Colorado Health Science Center Denver, Colo

JAMA. 1994;271(1):25.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.

—Schapira et al¹ executed an excellent study of the FET in the diagnosis of obstructive airways disease. However, we are concerned about the reproducibility of the maneuver.

We studied four internists examining 92 patients, yielding 342 examinations.² As in the study of Schapira et al, we used blinded, board-certified internists, who measured the FET while listening to the trachea with a stethoscope. We also trained our clinicians prior to the study by examining model patients. Unlike the study of Schapira et al, our examiners measured the FET with ordinary wristwatches, rather than stopwatches, and recorded the time to the nearest half second.

When we analyzed our data using the spirometric and FET criteria of Schapira et al, we found that 38% of patients had airway obstruction. The statistic for measuring interphysician agreement was 0.27. When we explored the reason for only "fair agreement" between . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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