Are there any special problems in diagnosing asthma in children?
We don’t have many places where there are spirometers; those are some of the limiting factors that we have. There are only a few places in the capitol city of Colombo where they do pulmonary function tests, and there are none in the peripheries. So we have a problem in getting spirometry done for our children. Even peak flow meters are very difficult to come by. Sometimes drug companies provide us with peak flow meters, but what they give is only two or three, which is insufficient to meet the demand. Many patients cannot afford to buy peak flow meters. Cost is another limiting factor in developing countries such as ours. In this scenario, the diagnosis of asthma is clinical, reinforced by the therapeutic response.
