<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote><i>Originally posted by: <b>lightNlife</b></i>
Merely using a peak flow meter isn't as useful in determining how well you're doing as a full PFT would be. When I first started attending the adult CF clinic (after having gone to a pediatrician for 23 years) they said that FEV1 values are what we should concentrate on. I've noticed that I can run consistently high peak flows (>120%) even when my FEV1 has dropped to 1.3L</end quote></div>
To add to that, I recently asked my RT at the clinic about Peak Flows so I could track my own lung volumes between visits and she wouldn't even give me one. She said they are completely unreliable and inconsistent. Although she does not have CF, she said she did one reading, sat around, did another reading, sat around, and did another reading and though she was trying to keep her breathing steady, all the readings were completely different. That means, in her opinion, even when taking the readings in the same sitting, you can get extremely different results (different than when you do PFTs and they should remain fairly consistent.) Also, she said their asthma doc at the University would not even use Peak Flows. So, just an FYI... some people think they're not reliable at all.