Pulmonary Function Testing
LeBauer Pulmonary offers a full range of lung testing, including pulmonary function testing, methacholine challenge testing, arterial blood gas and cardiopulmonary exercise testing for diagnosis and management of lung diseases.
Pulmonary function tests (or PFTs) are non-invasive tests that show how well your lungs are functioning. They measure various parameters of lung function such as lung volumes, rate of air flow and how well your lungs are working in getting oxygen into and carbon dioxide out of the body.
Pulmonary function tests include:
- Spirometry: Measures how much air you can inhale and exhale, and also the rate of air flow
- Lung volumes or body plethysmography: Measure the volume of air that is contained in your lung
- Diffusion study: Measures how much oxygen and other gases are transferred through the lungs
- Methacholine challenge testing: Specific type of pulmonary function tests that are done to confirm or exclude a diagnosis of asthma
Why are pulmonary function tests performed?
Your provider will order these tests to help assess your respiratory symptoms and to make a diagnosis of various lung illness.
They are also ordered to monitor how you are responding to treatments, or if your lung condition is progressing.
Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing
If you’re experiencing unexplained shortness of breath, you may be given a cardiopulmonary exercise test to help us understand the underlying cause.
Cardiopulmonary exercise testing (known as CPET or CPEX) is a specialized type of stress test/exercise test that measures your exercise ability. During the test, we collect information about your heart and lungs to understand if the body's response to exercise is normal or abnormal.
For the test, you will be asked to either walk on a treadmill or pedal on a bicycle for approximately 10 minutes at your maximum capacity. During this time, your heart rate, blood pressure, oxygen saturation, electrocardiogram and lung gas exchange will be measured.
Learn more about cardiopulmonary exercise testing here.
Learn more about pulmonary lung tests here:
pulmonary-function-tests.pdf (thoracic.org)
pulmonary-function-tests.pdf (thoracic.org) (Spanish)
lung-function-studies-methacholine.pdf (thoracic.org)
