ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Pediatr.
Sec. Pediatric Pulmonology
Comparison of Spirometry, Impulse Oscillometry, and Multiple Breath Washout in Children with Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia
Provisionally accepted
Utku BATU1*
Ela Erdem Eralp2
Cansu Yilmaz Yegit2
Mine Yüksel Kalyoncu3
Muruvvet Yanaz4
Almala Pinar Ergenekon2
Yasemin Gökdemir2
Bülent Taner Karadağ2- 1van regional training and research hospital, Van, Türkiye
- 2Marmara Universitesi Egitim ve Arastirma Hastanesi, Istanbul, Türkiye
- 3Kartal Dr Lutfi Kirdar Sehir Hastanesi, Istanbul, Türkiye
- 4Diyarbakir SBU Gazi Yasargil Egitim Ve Arastirma Hastanesi, Diyarbakır, Türkiye
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Background: Primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) is associated with ventilation defects and heterogeneous impairment of pulmonary function. Spirometry alone may underestimate PCD severity and complexity. This study aimed to evaluate spirometry, multiple breath washout (MBW), and impulse oscillometry (IOS) in children with PCD and healthy controls. Methods: In this cross-sectional, prospective study, participants included children aged 6-18 years with PCD and healthy age-matched controls. Pulmonary function tests using MBW, IOS, and spirometry were conducted on the same day for all participants. Results: Thirty-two children with PCD (cwPCD) (median age 16.5 years) and 44 age-matched healthy controls (median age 15.7 years) were studied. PCD was associated with lower forced expiratory volume in 1 (FEV1) percent predicted (pp), forced vital capacity (FVC) pp, FEV1/FVC, reactance 5 (X5); as well as higher resistance 5 (R5), R10, R15, R20, resonance frequency (Fres) and lung clearance index (LCI) 2.5% mean values (p<0.05 for all). Abnormal LCI 2.5% was found in 46.5% of patients with predicted FEV1 pp > 80%. Significant inverse correlations were observed between LCI 2.5% and FEV1 pp (p<0.001, r:-0.62), FVC pp (p=0.004, r:-0.49), FEV1/FVC (p=0.002, r:-0.52) in PCD patients. Conclusion: This is one of the few studies comparing MBW, IOS, and spirometry in cwPCD. The study has shown that there are significant differences in spirometry and MBW between cwPCD and healthy controls. MBW can detect airway anomalies earlier than spirometry and may be used in follow-up as an alternative pulmonary function test in cwPCD.
Keywords: Impulse oscillometry, Lung function, Multiple Breath Washout, primary ciliary dyskinesia, Spirometry
Received: 23 Nov 2025; Accepted: 04 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 BATU, Erdem Eralp, Yilmaz Yegit, Yüksel Kalyoncu, Yanaz, Ergenekon, Gökdemir and Karadağ. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Utku BATU
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