The Immediate Pulmonary Disease Pattern following Exposure to High Concentrations of Chlorine Gas

Table 1

Comparison of different criteria for classification of pulmonary disease patterns.

Pulmonary disease pattern	2003 Mannino et al. guidelines [16]	2005 ATS/ERS task force guidelines^# [15]	Graniteville criteria
Obstructive	Mild: FEV1/FVC ratio < 70%,; FEV1 ≥ 80% of predicted; Moderate: FEV1/FVC ratio < 70%,; FEV1 ≥ 50% but < 80% of predicted; Severe: FEV1/FVC ratio < 70%,; FEV1 < 50% of predicted	FEV1/VC ratio below LLN*	FEV1/FVC ratio ≤ 0.70 and normal, reduced, or increased FEV1 and FVC percent predicted
Restrictive	FEV1/FVC ratio ≥ 70 and; FVC < 80% of predicted	TLC below LLN or; FEV1/VC ratio ≥ 85 and; a reduced VC	FEV1/FVC ratio ≥ 0.75,; FEV1 and FVC < 75%; of predicted
Mixed	No criteria reported	FEV1/VC ratio and; TLC below LLN	FEV1/FVC ratio > 0.70 and < 0.75 and both FEV1 and FVC < 75% predicted

#Vital capacity (VC) measures were unavailable, so we used FEV₁/FVC ratio instead of FEV₁/VC ratio as suggested by 2005 ATS/ERS guidelines.
*Lower limit of normal.