Monitoring my COPD

These pages are specifically for patients who have been prescribed Incruse Ellipta. If you are not a patient please return to the public website.

Spirometry

As part of the diagnosis process your health care professional will usually ask you to take a breathing test, this test is known as spirometry and it measures how well your lungs work.
Spirometry is often also used during your COPD assessments as this allows your health care professional to track your COPD over time and make adjustment to your care if required.

This measures your forced expiratory volume in one second or FEV1 - which is how much air you can expel from your lungs in the first second of breathing out. It can help tell whether your breathing is obstructed by narrowing of the bronchial tubes [as found in asthma or COPD]. The FEV1 is useful in diagnosing COPD, telling how severe the disease is and how it might develop.[1]

COPD Assessment Test (CAT)

The COPD Assessment Test  is an eight-question questionnaire that will help you and your doctor measure the impact COPD is having on your life, and how this changes over time.

Your answers and test score can be used by you and your healthcare professional to help improve the management of your COPD and maximise the benefit from treatment. Take the COPD Assessment Test now or print it out and take it later (PDF).

There is no particular score you should be aiming for, but in general, you and your doctor will be looking to reduce or at least maintain your CAT score.[2]

References:

1. Spirometry health information from Patient.co.uk
2. COPD assessment test