[Rinsho Byori 51 : 568〜573, 2003]

Pulmonary Function Tests

Hitoshi KAWAMOTO, MD*1 and Masayuki KAMBE, MD*2

The spirometry has been most valuable pulmonary function test and it defines pulmonary physiology. But the spirometry has not been widely used by general physicians in Japan. The spirometry is effort-dependent test, so, they seem to keep it at a distance. It's desirable that pulmonary function tests are effort-independent. We introduce some effort-independent pulmonary function tests and refer to analysis of exhaled breath condensate.

*1Department of Clinical Laboratory Medicine, Hiroshima University, Graduate School of Biomedical Science, Hiroshima 734-8554