![]() ![]() Yellow Zone: Fifty percent to 80% of personal best. ![]() No changes are needed to the present regimen. As long as no symptoms are present, the patient is considered at steady state. Green Zone: Usually set at 80% to 100% of personal best or normal peak flow. These should correlate with a written asthma action plan. For ease of patient interpretation, the colors of a traditional traffic light have been used to designate varying degrees of peak flow limitation. Typical peak flow meters are equipped with gauge markers indicating three “zones” that can be set by the patient or clinic staff to aid users in interpreting their peak flow scores. For those patients who are relatively well controlled and can sense worsening symptoms early in the course of an exacerbation, as-needed measurement is appropriate. For those patients who demonstrate a pattern of not having pronounced symptoms despite increasing disease activity, a clinician should outline daily (or more) measurement to identify deterioration rapidly and intervene appropriately. ![]() Specific instructions on how often and when an individual patient should be instructed to measure peak flow depends on patient characteristics and provider preference. It can be denoted on the meter to aid in interpretation. Typically, this number should be obtained during a period when the patient is feeling well and has just received maximal asthma therapy. Obtaining a “personal best” peak flow measurement during steady state for each patient is preferable to using published normal values, and this number should be used by both patients and clinicians to evaluate disease activity objectively. The most widely accepted use of peak flow measurement is in the daily and/or as-needed ambulatory evaluation of asthma. ![]()
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