Health and Safety
Executive / Commission
Contract Research Reports
Oasys-2 is a computer based analytical tool for the evaluation
of serial measurements of peak expiratory flow (PEF). It has been
evaluated in clinic populations and has been found to have a
sensitivity of 75% for the diagnosis of occupational asthma when
evaluated against gold standard diagnostic methods independent of
PEF measurement {1}. Its specificity is 94%. In the clinic
situation around 50% of attendees provide an adequate record for
diagnosis after postal
instruction, rising to 85% after personal instruction and
encouragement {2}. Oasys-2 has not been evaluated adequately in an
epidemiological setting.
Workers exposed to grain have a variety of occupational respiratory
diseases, including allergic and irritant asthma, grain fever,
alveolitis and occupational COPD. The HSE has an ongoing study of
farmers and dockers, including questionnaires, specific IgE
measurements and lung function measurements. The existing
populations in these studies were used to evaluate Oasys-2 in the
field situation.
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