Abstract              Study objective: To determine the correlation of breath holding time with standard measures post bronchodilator FEV1, FVC, FEV1/FVC ratio and PEFR. Materials and Methods: Design: Prospective observational study. Setting: Smt Kahibai Navle Medical College and General Hospital, Pune. Time duration: January 2017 - June 2017. Participants: 499 cases, which included 100 normal volunteer and 399 participants who needed to undergo spirometry for clinical indications. Spirometry (Easy one, ndd) was performed on all the study participants. Post bronchodilator FEV1, FVC, FEV1/FVC ratio and PEFR were measured and recorded. Then participants were subjected to Breath Holding time test. All participants were then classified as normal, obstructive or restrictive disease on the basis of spirometry and clinical findings. The results of Breath Holding Time test were then correlated with post bronchodilator FEV1, FVC and PEFR. Conclusion: Breath holding time correlated well with post bronchodilator FEV1, FVC and PEFR in normal, obstructive and restrictive patients however the correlation was weak with PEFR. In resource poor settings BHT can be a reasonable non technician, non-machine dependant alternative to Spirometry.

Key Words: BHT-breath holding time, FEV1-Forced Expiratory Volume in one second, FVC-Forced Vital Capacity PEFR- Peak Expiratory flow rates.