When is it an expiratory plateau?
Over the last couple of weeks I’ve had an unusual number of patients with expiratory plateaus on their flow-volume loops. Expiratory plateaus are usually considered to be a sign of…
Over the last couple of weeks I’ve had an unusual number of patients with expiratory plateaus on their flow-volume loops.…
21 Mar 2017 March 21, 2017 • Leave a comment
Normal or obstruction?
I had finished reviewing a pre- and post-BD spirometry report yesterday and was about to toss it on my out pile when I noticed something a bit odd about the…
I had finished reviewing a pre- and post-BD spirometry report yesterday and was about to toss it on my out…
12 Mar 2017 March 12, 2017 • Leave a comment
An unusual error in helium dilution lung volumes
Recently I was reviewing a report that included helium dilution lung volumes. What caught my eye was that the TLC and the FRC didn’t particularly fit in with the results…
Recently I was reviewing a report that included helium dilution lung volumes. What caught my eye was that the TLC…
1 Mar 2017 March 1, 2017 • Leave a comment
2017 ERS DLNO standards
The European Respiratory Society has just published the first standards for DLNO testing. This is a signal that DLNO is moving from a research setting into routine clinical testing. Although…
The European Respiratory Society has just published the first standards for DLNO testing. This is a signal that DLNO is…
19 Feb 2017 February 19, 2017 • Leave a comment
Some DLCO errors the 2017 standards will probably fix
Last week I ran across a couple errors in some DLCO tests that I don’t remember seeing before, or at least not as distinctly as they appeared this time. If…
Last week I ran across a couple errors in some DLCO tests that I don’t remember seeing before, or at…
12 Feb 2017 February 12, 2017 • Leave a comment
What’s the frequency, plethysmograph?
Once again we’ve had some staff turnover. Rightly or wrongly, the pattern we follow in staffing the lab is to hire people with a science degree and then train them…
Once again we’ve had some staff turnover. Rightly or wrongly, the pattern we follow in staffing the lab is to…
5 Feb 2017 February 5, 2017 • Leave a comment
Which time is it?
The ATS/ERS standard for spirometry recommends reporting the highest FEV1 and the highest FVC even when they come from different tests. Our lab software allows us to do this, but…
The ATS/ERS standard for spirometry recommends reporting the highest FEV1 and the highest FVC even when they come from different…
26 Jan 2017 January 26, 2017 • Leave a comment
Calculating VA the mass balance way
One of the more significant changes that appeared in the 2017 ERS/ATS DLCO standards was the requirement that rapid-response gas analyzer (RGA) systems calculate VA using a mass balance approach.…
One of the more significant changes that appeared in the 2017 ERS/ATS DLCO standards was the requirement that rapid-response gas…
15 Jan 2017 January 15, 2017 • Leave a comment
ERS/ATS 2017 DLCO standards
The new ERS/ATS standards for DLCO testing were published in the January issue of the European Respiratory Journal. The article was published as open access and can be downloaded from…
The new ERS/ATS standards for DLCO testing were published in the January issue of the European Respiratory Journal. The article…
7 Jan 2017 January 7, 2017 • Leave a comment