Diagnostic differentiation between asthma and COPD in primary care using lung function testing

Asthma and COPD are defined as different disease entities, but in practice patients often show features of both diseases making it challenging for primary care clinicians to establish a correct diagnosis. We aimed to establish the added value of spirometry and more advanced lung function measurements to differentiate between asthma and COPD. A cross-sectional study in 10 Dutch general practices was performed. 532 subjects were extensively screened on respiratory symptoms and lung function. Two chest physicians assessed if asthma or COPD was present. Using multivariable logistic regression analysis we assessed the ability of three scenarios (i.e. only patient history; diagnostics available to primary care; diagnostics available only to secondary care) to differentiate between the two conditions. Receiver operator characteristics (ROC) curves and area under the curve (AUC) were calculated for each scenario, with the chest physicians’ assessment as golden standard. Results showed that 84 subjects were diagnosed with asthma, 138 with COPD, and 310 with no chronic respiratory disease. In the scenario including only patient history items, ROC characteristics of the model showed an AUC of 0.84 (95% CI 0.78–0.89) for differentiation between asthma and COPD. When adding diagnostics available to primary care (i.e., pre- and postbronchodilator spirometry) AUC increased to 0.89 (95% CI 0.84–0.93; p = 0.020). When adding more advanced secondary care diagnostic tests AUC remained 0.89 (95% CI 0.85–0.94; p = 0.967). We conclude that primary care clinicians’ ability to differentiate between asthma and COPD is enhanced by spirometry testing. More advanced diagnostic tests used in hospital care settings do not seem to provide a better overall diagnostic differentiation between asthma and COPD in primary care patients.