what is pulmonary function test?

Question

someone told me that if i have asthma that i would have to take a pumonary function test what is it

Answer 1

A PFT or pulmonary function test measures not only how fast you can get air into your lungs how how fast you can get it out and of there is any being trapped in your lungs by premature airway collapse. A DLCO or diffusion test tells how well the oxygen transfers from the lungs into the blood stream. If you are normal a Methacholine challenge is given. In this series of tests you will be given a precise dose of medication to breath and tested. It is a universal irritant. How rapidly you respond to it and by how much determines if your have reactive airway disease (Asthma). You will then be given a bronchodilator which is a medication to open the lungs to reverse everything and retested. Also, don't be surprised if they do a blood test known as an ABG or arterial blood test. This is the gold standard for how much oxygen your blood is carrying. (This is usually done only in adults) Good luck to you.

Answer 2

A test designed to measure how well the lungs are working. Pulmonary function tests (PFTs) gauge how the lungs are carrying out their tasks -- of expanding and contracting (when a person inhales and exhales) and of exchanging oxygen and carbon dioxide efficiently between the air (or other gases) within the lungs and the blood.

For example, one pulmonary function test calls for the patient to breathe into a machine called a spirometer (a mechanical device that records the changes in lung size as air is inhaled and exhaled and the time it takes for the patient to do this)

Answer 3

Gives your pulmanologist an idea of how much lung function
that you have left

Like me I have about 25% w/o albuterol