Goodbye
This is probably the last post I will be able to write. I was diagnosed less than two months ago with a very nasty cancer with a poor prognosis. I…
This is probably the last post I will be able to write. I was diagnosed less than two months ago…
2 Dec 2018 December 2, 2018 by Richard Johnston • Leave a comment
A modest proposal for a clinical spirometry grading system
A while back I reviewed the spirometry grading system that was included in the 2017 ATS reporting standards. My feeling was, and continues to be, that its usefulness is very…
A while back I reviewed the spirometry grading system that was included in the 2017 ATS reporting standards. My feeling…
16 Sep 2018 September 16, 2018 by Richard Johnston • Leave a comment
Infection Control
The issue of infection control has been a topic of a couple of discussions I’ve had lately. In particular, it was reported to me that a PFT lab had come…
The issue of infection control has been a topic of a couple of discussions I’ve had lately. In particular, it…
9 Sep 2018 September 9, 2018 by Richard Johnston • Leave a comment
Is gas trapping more common than we think it is?
Over the last couple of years I’ve run across a number of test systems that do not include tidal loops along with the maximal flow-volume loop. I’ve wondered why this…
Over the last couple of years I’ve run across a number of test systems that do not include tidal loops…
17 Jun 2018 June 17, 2018 by Richard Johnston • Leave a comment
Telling the right story
The 2005 ATS/ERS spirometry standard make it permissible and even recommends that the FVC and FEV1 be selected from different efforts. I disagree somewhat with their criteria for selecting the…
The 2005 ATS/ERS spirometry standard make it permissible and even recommends that the FVC and FEV1 be selected from different…
8 May 2018 May 8, 2018 by Richard Johnston • Leave a comment
I’ve got the old back-extrapolation blues
A couple days ago I pulled my copy of the Intermountain Thoracic Society manual on pulmonary function testing off the bookshelf and thumbed through it a bit. It was first…
A couple days ago I pulled my copy of the Intermountain Thoracic Society manual on pulmonary function testing off the…
21 Mar 2018 March 21, 2018 by Richard Johnston • Leave a comment
A spirometry quality grading system. Or is it?
A set of guidelines for grading spirometry quality was included with the recently published ATS recommendations for a standardized pulmonary function report. These guideline are similar to others p…
A set of guidelines for grading spirometry quality was included with the recently published ATS recommendations for a standardized pulmonary…
25 Feb 2018 February 25, 2018 by Richard Johnston • Leave a comment
3-Equation DLCO
One of the limitations of the single-breath DLCO is that the equation used to calculate results implicitly assumes that the entire breath-holding period occurs at TLC. Mathematically, what happens …
One of the limitations of the single-breath DLCO is that the equation used to calculate results implicitly assumes that the…
18 Feb 2018 February 18, 2018 by Richard Johnston • Leave a comment
VA, two ways
One of the recommendations in the 2017 ERS/ATS DLCO standards was that VA should be calculated using a mass balance equation. I’ve discussed this approach previously, but basically the volume…
One of the recommendations in the 2017 ERS/ATS DLCO standards was that VA should be calculated using a mass balance…
22 Jan 2018 January 22, 2018 by Richard Johnston • Leave a comment
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