Development and testing of formal protocols for oxygen prescribing

The absence of standardized assessment protocols with well-defined measurem ent properties limits comparison of outcomes among those receiving long-ter m oxygen therapy (LTOT). We describe simple protocols for a hospital test, a simulated home test, and an actual home test, their reliability and relat ionship to each other. Stable patients with exercise hypoxemia participated . In 74 patients who completed four exercise tests, correlations between te sts ranged from 0.85 to 0.78. Of these 27.0% had the same prescription from all four tests. In 46% prescriptions were within 1 L/min and in 27% within 2 L/min. During exercise the hospital tests suggested slightly higher oxyg en prescriptions than did the simulated home tests (2.5 L/min versus 2.0 L/ min, p < 0.001). In 23 patients who participated in actual home assessments , the correlations between the home test, the hospital, and the simulated h ome tests were 0.22 (95% CI -0.24 to 0.67) and 0.27 (95% CI -0.18 to 0.72). In conclusion, standardizing tests for the assessment of LTOT is important . We describe simple hospital and simulated home tests that are reproducibl e, easy to carry out, and correlate well with each other.