{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,12]],"date-time":"2025-10-12T04:35:31Z","timestamp":1760243731629,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":52,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"11","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,11,3]],"date-time":"2022-11-03T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1667433600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Institute of Research and Biomedical Innovation (IRIB)","award":["P0000029"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["P0000029"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Diagnostics"],"abstract":"<jats:p>(1) Background: To detect early airway obstruction in an adult primary care setting. (2) Methods: Seventeen general practitioners (GP) were involved. A total of 912 patients consulting their GPs over 40 years were recruited: 583 of them (323M) agreed to perform\/undergo all the procedures: respiratory questionnaire, mMRC questionnaire, and spirometry. We identified four subgroups: physician COPD patients; physician asthma patients; asthma-COPD overlap syndrome patients; and no respiratory diagnosis subjects, on the basis of physician diagnosis. For screening purposes, an FEV1\/FVC &lt; 70% was considered a marker of airway obstruction (AO). (3) Results: Prevalence rates of COPD, A, and ACOS were 12.5%, 7.8%, and 3.6%, respectively. In the overall sample 16.3% showed airway obstruction: 26% mild, 56% moderate, 17% severe, and 1% very severe. In obstructed subjects, those reporting neither respiratory symptoms nor a physician\u2019s respiratory diagnosis were 60% level I; 43% level II; 44% level III; and none level IV. Wheezing (p &lt; 0.001), sputum (p = 0.01), older age (p &lt; 0.0001), and male gender (p = 0.002) were the best predictors of airway obstruction. (4) Conclusions: A high prevalence of AO was found. In AO we found a high prevalence of subjects without respiratory symptoms or respiratory chronic diagnosis. Airway obstruction was predicted by the presence of wheezing, sputum, older age, and male gender.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/diagnostics12112680","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,11,4]],"date-time":"2022-11-04T03:28:10Z","timestamp":1667532490000},"page":"2680","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Airway Obstruction in Primary Care Patients: Need for Implementing Spirometry Use"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"12","author":[{"given":"Salvatore","family":"Bucchieri","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Translational Pharmacology (IFT), National Research Council of Italy, Via Fosso del Cavaliere 100, 00133 Roma, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6725-7415","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Pietro","family":"Alfano","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Translational Pharmacology (IFT), National Research Council of Italy, Via Fosso del Cavaliere 100, 00133 Roma, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0768-9889","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Palma","family":"Audino","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Translational Pharmacology (IFT), National Research Council of Italy, Via Fosso del Cavaliere 100, 00133 Roma, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1602-0749","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Giovanni","family":"Fazio","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Triolo Zanca Clinic, Piazza Fonderia 23, 90133 Palermo, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1306-5976","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Salvatore","family":"Marcantonio","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Quality, Planning and Strategic Support Area, University of Palermo, Piazza Marina 61, 90133 Palermo, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"name":"Snamid Palermo Cooperative Group","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Giuseppina","family":"Cuttitta","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Translational Pharmacology (IFT), National Research Council of Italy, Via Fosso del Cavaliere 100, 00133 Roma, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,11,3]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"106","DOI":"10.1378\/chest.125.1.106","article-title":"Airway obstruction is common but unsuspected in patients admitted to a general medicine service","volume":"125","author":"Zaas","year":"2004","journal-title":"Chest"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1093","DOI":"10.1378\/chest.126.4.1093","article-title":"The proportional Venn diagram of obstructive lung disease in the Italian general population","volume":"126","author":"Viegi","year":"2004","journal-title":"Chest"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"171","DOI":"10.1089\/jamp.2019.1576","article-title":"Global burden of chronic respiratory diseases","volume":"33","author":"Viegi","year":"2020","journal-title":"J. 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