Reversibility testing

My GP has booked me in for a reversibility test in a couple of weeks, I got a letter telling me not to use my salbutamol within 4 hour of the test, does this mean I need to miss my seretide too? Does the test mean that she is now doubting the diagnosis or is it a normal part of a review?

I'm not entirely sure it'll show anything unless my asthma *happens* to be bad that day, as between exacerbations I'm *very* well and my peak flows are about as good as they can get. I'm a bit worried if there's no significant change after the salbutamol dose my GP might withdraw my asthma meds, I feel abit like just as it's coming under control my she's giving up. Apart from a few blips (all explained by, a cold, dust from building work and inadvertantly drinking something with some addatives my body doesn't seem to like) my peak flow diary looks pretty good. Since she switched my Symbicort to Seretide on Monday I'm feeling much better, I'm sleeping better, my hands have stopped shaking so I'm not constantly dropping things, so far I haven't had a migraine though it's early days on that one (on symbicort I was having one *at least* once a week). I also got a new PB for my PEFR this morning all through the magic of seretide, I'm really feeling back to my old self and can't bear to think of it all being taken away again.

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i.m glad the seretide is helping you, i have found it a great help too. I wouldn't worry too much about the reversebility, mine wasn't very different before and after salbutamol either but the asthma nurse was more bothered by my symptoms. I have read about a ceiling effect where when you pf is good, even a good dose of salbutamol won't raise it much, however when your pf is bad, it makes a big difference. My pf is way about predicted, is your too? Just be ready for the shakes and heart palpitations afterwards, the nurse hadn't warned me about it and i'd only just been given a blue inhaler.

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Hi Nimueh, I've had this test and didn't take any meds beforehand if they said no salbutamil then don't take your reliever. Mine showed a massive difference and was severely restricted before taking Ventolin through a spacer and could feel the difference. I found the test exhausting and went home to bed for a few hours. Hope you get on Ok.

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Thanks for the replies. My best peak flow, at 685l/min, is a great deal higher than predicted and when I'm well my peak flows are pretty close to that, and if is gets any higher I'll run out of space on my peak flow diary, lol! Before treatment it would have shown a big difference, infact, I've got before and after plotted in my peak flow diary from a few weeks back, but now I've got control it seems like a bit of a pointless exercise. I'm just a bit confused as to why my GP wants to do a reversibility test now that symptoms are coming under control and peak flows are the best they've ever been.

Does anyone know if I need to miss my seretide dose? I know not to use my salbutamol reliever within 4 hours, but since the salmeterol in seretide is a long acting reliever that lasts at least 12hours, does that mean I can't take my seretide within 12hours+ of the test? I can't ring to ask until tuesday as the person conducting the test is off till then, but I've been worrying about it since I found out about it.

[angievere]

What about ringing the Asthma UK nurse - no is top left on this page? Or try googling it, see if there's more information on the Internet about reversibility testing.

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Just a quick update for anyone who's interested

I had my reversibility test this morning, and there was little difference pre-and post SABA dose, but since peak flows are good was told it indicates good control. The asthma diagnosis was never in doubt they just wanted to keep their records up to date; the fact that when I started keeping my peak flow diary my peak flows were up and down more than your average big dipper confirms the diagnosis. So after feeling pretty good asthma-wise for a few weeks I've been officially told my asthma's well controlled, I've finally made it, even if it did take several months to get to this point.