Evaluation with COPD-PS questionnaire and Vita-lograph COPD-6 portable device as a strategy for early diagnosis of COPD in primary care

Objective: To evaluate the use of the COPD-PS ques-tionnaire and the Vitalograph COPD-6 portable devi-ce, as a strategy for the early diagnosis of chronic obs-tructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in two primary care units of the state social enterprise (ESE): Metrosa-lud, Medellin-Colombia in 2017. Methods: A cross-sectional study to early detection of COPD, in people older than 35 years without previous diagnosis of the disease or other underlying respira-tory diseases. The “COPD-PS” case detection-scree-ning test was applied for identify respiratory risk fac-tors and then the forced expiratory volume test (VEF1/VEF6) with the portable device Vitalograph-COPD-6. Results: Of 1485 COPD-PS screening tests, 198 had a score equal to or greater than four, so they were tes-ted with the Vitalograph device, of which 147 (74.2%) were positive. Discussion: The underreporting of Chronic Obstruc-tive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is currently descri-bed as a serious problem worldwide. The use of the COPD-PS questionnaire for the identification of pa-tients with risk factors and the Vitalograph COPD-6 as a lung function test, can be useful tools to implement an effective strategy to reduce COPD underreporting.