Adoption and adherence to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease GOLD guidelines in a primary care setting.

There is suboptimal use of pulmonary function test in a primary care setting for diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and substantial errors in diagnosis. There is virtually no use routinely of validated symptom scales for diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. There is substantial variance in pharmacotherapy, and regimens routinely do not follow GOLD guidelines.