Is it time to scuttle the FEF25%-75%?
When we went through our hardware and software upgrade last August, one of the changes we made was to stop reporting the FEF25%-75% (AKA MMEF, MMFR, MMF). The pulmonary physicians had long since st…
Month February 2013
Problem selecting an FEV1 highlights a training failure
A report of a patient’s complete set of PFTS came across my desk yesterday. There were a lot of inconsistencies in the report and I ended up looking at the raw data for every single test. Whe…
PACO and DLCO
Patients are advised not to smoke prior to DLCO testing, primarily because it increases carboxyhemoglobin. The effect of COHb on DLCO has been well studied, but COHb is not often measured before DL…
DLCO, by the numbers
I was recently contacted by a physician looking for an illustration or diagram to help make gas exchange and DLCO more understandable. We’ve all seen the diagram of the alveoli with a capilla…