A spirometry test measures the health of your lungs and can be used to diagnose and monitor lung conditions. During the test, you will exhale as much air as you can, as forcefully as possible, into a device called a spirometer. Pulmonary function tests (also called lung function tests) include a series of tests that check how well your lungs are working. The most basic test is spirometry.
This test measures how much air the lungs can hold. The test also measures the force with which air can be emptied from the lungs. To check your best reading, test yourself with the meter every day for 2 to 3 weeks. Record the highest number each day.
When you finish the whole series of tests, the highest reading of all will be your personal best. This can be a kind of benchmark. You and your doctor will use it to make a plan for managing your disease with medication and other therapies. Many of these plans use a colour-coded system, like the traffic lights you see when you drive.
This is the simplest and most common lung test. You breathe in and out as much as you can through a tube, and your doctor measures the amount of air going in and out of your lungs. It can help diagnose diseases that affect the amount of air your lungs can hold, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). During this test, your doctor may give you medicines to open up your airways and help you breathe easier.
Your doctor will first do a spirometry test and then ask you to inhale an aerosol of a drug called methacholine, which can irritate your airways and make them narrower. The doctor will do another spirometry test to see how the spray affects your breathing. He or she will repeat this with small doses until you start to wheeze or feel short of breath. Your doctor may give you medicine to reopen your airways.
This test can be used to rule out asthma. You can also increase your lung capacity by increasing the length of your inhalations and exhalations. Start by counting how long a natural breath lasts. If the inhalation lasts five minutes, the exhalation should last five minutes.
Try to make them the same length. Once you have figured out your average breath count, add one more count to each inhalation and exhalation until you can comfortably extend the time it takes to fill and empty your lungs. The idea is to avoid strain or discomfort, and it should be a gradual and easy process. How do you measure lung capacity? A common method is to use a peak flow meter, a hand-held device that measures the strength of your breath.
You simply breathe in at one end and the meter instantly displays a reading on a scale, usually in litres per minute (bpm). In addition to pulmonary function tests, your doctor may order a blood oxygen level test. Knowing the capacity and health of your lungs is vitally important for anyone undergoing oxygen therapy or suffering from a respiratory disease such as asthma or emphysema. Since regular daily activity does not help you use your lungs to their full capacity, you need to challenge your lungs with more intense activity.
Symptoms of lung diseases and lung cancer tend to come on slowly and people often put them down to ageing or lack of fitness. People with asthma or other chronic lung problems can only measure their lung function at the doctor's office a few times a year by blowing into specialised equipment. Using a peak flow meter is one of the easiest and most convenient ways to track the daily progress of your lung health. Pulmonary function tests, also known as pulmonary function tests or PFTs, are a group of tests that check whether your lungs are working properly.
