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Required number of maneuvers

In children, adolescents and adults three reproducible maneuvers are required (see FVC and FEV1). Do not try to obtain more than 8 maneuvers (ref. 1). There is little if anything to be gained from obtaining more than 3 correctly performed reproducible maneuvers.

Coefficicient of variation for FEV1, FVC, PEF and MEF50 (FEF50)

Ref. 1 - Number of FVC maneuvers
If 8 maneuvers have not led to a FVC or FEV1 meeting the requirements then further attempts are useless:

  1. Ferris BG Jr, Speizer FE, Bishop Y, Prang G, Weener J. Spirometry for an epidemiologic study: deriving optimum summary statistics for each subject. Bull Europ Physiopathol Respir 1978; 14: 145-166.
  2. Kanner RE, Schenker MB, Munoz A, Speizer FE. Spirometry in children: methodology for obtaining optimal results for clinical and epidemiological studies. Am Rev Respir Dis 1983; 127: 720-724.
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