TY - JOUR T1 - Is spirometry essential in diagnosing asthma? Yes JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 484 LP - 484 DO - 10.3399/bjgp16X686953 VL - 66 IS - 650 AU - Ingrid Looijmans–van den Akker AU - Hans van der Zeijden AU - Theo JM Verheij Y1 - 2016/09/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/66/650/484.abstract N2 - Asthma is a disease that is often hard to diagnose because many patients have no signs or symptoms and have a normal lung function between attacks. Impaired lung function during a histamine challenge test is the reference test, but is not acceptable to many patients, especially to children. A history of certain symptoms also has sufficient diagnostic value for the diagnosis of asthma. Both the British and Dutch guidelines allow indication of a diagnosis of asthma without further additional testing when certain signs and symptoms are present.1,2 So for these patients spirometry … ER -