Long-term conditions: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

The use of spirometry as an objective measurement in the diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is widely acknowledged and discussed in guidelines about COPD, as well as those specific to spirometry (British Thoracic Society [BTS]/Association for Respiratory Technology and Physiology [ARTP], 1994; Levy et al, 2009; National Institute for Health and Care Excellence [NICE], 2010; Primary Care Commissioning [PCC], 2013). As a relatively simple test to undertake, it has been performed in primary care for several years now but with varying degrees of expertise and understanding (Strong et al, 2014). The standard of secondary care lung function testing (LFT) has never been questioned. Overall, this inequity of testing has resulted in an estimated 50% of people having an incorrect diagnosis (Tinkelman et al, 2006). This results in people taking medication they do not need, or not receiving treatment they do. This article will enable the reader to identify gaps in their own knowledge about the use of spirometry in COPD diagnosis.