PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Paul D. Burns AU - James Y. Paton TI - The impact of changing to the Global Lung Function Initiative reference equations for transfer factor in paediatrics AID - 10.1183/23120541.00412-2020 DP - 2020 Jan 01 TA - ERJ Open Research PG - 00412-2020 4099 - http://openres.ersjournals.com/content/early/2020/09/24/23120541.00412-2020.short 4100 - http://openres.ersjournals.com/content/early/2020/09/24/23120541.00412-2020.full AB - The Global Lung Function Initiative (GLI) all age reference equations for carbon monoxide transfer factor were published in 2017 and endorsed by the ERS/ATS. In order to understand the impact of these new reference equations on the interpretation of results in children referred from haematology and oncology paediatric services, we retrospectively analysed transfer factor results from any paediatric patient referred from haematology oncology in the period 2010–2018. We examined TLCO, KCO and VA from 241 children (age range; 7–18, 130 male). The predicted values from Rosenthal and GLI were plotted against height. The difference in interpretation of results was analysed by looking at the percentage of patients <LLN for each parameter. Overall, the Rosenthal predicted values for TLCO were higher than GLI. Predicted KCO using Rosenthal was higher in all observations. In contrast, the Rosenthal predicted VA was generally lower than the GLI value. The GLI predicted values for transfer factor show considerable differences compared with currently used paediatric UK reference values, differences that will have a significant impact on interpretation of results.FootnotesThis manuscript has recently been accepted for publication in the ERJ Open Research. It is published here in its accepted form prior to copyediting and typesetting by our production team. After these production processes are complete and the authors have approved the resulting proofs, the article will move to the latest issue of the ERJOR online. Please open or download the PDF to view this article.Conflict of interest: Dr. Burns has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Dr. Paton has nothing to disclose.