Table 1

Common pitfalls in diagnosing asthma in the elderly

Pitfall	Is it useful in diagnosing asthma?	Comments	Ref.
Absence of reversibility	No	Elderly asthmatics may develop fixed airflow limitation	[24]
Impaired D_LCO	Yes	D_LCO should be normal in asthmatics	[27]
Smoking	No	Unfortunately, asthmatic patients do not avoid smoking	[26]
Disability	No	Presence of disability is not confined to COPD	[25]
Absence of allergy	No	Elderly asthmatics often are nonatopic	[30, 31]
Presence of allergy	Possibly	If associated with a long disease duration	[25, 30]
Long disease duration	Possibly	Asthma starting in young age does persist	[24]