Pulmonary Function Laboratory

Pulmonary Function Tests (PFTs) are a series of breathing tests designed to tell your healthcare provider about how your lungs are working. They help to diagnose lung problems such as asthma or emphysema, and determine how severely the lungs are affected. They also help to plan your treatment and to evaluate the effectiveness of your treatment. This means that they will need to be repeated at intervals to monitor your lung function.

They are typically done in a clinic or hospital setting, and a technologist will instruct you on how to do each test. Most tests require that you breath through a tube, and perform various maneuvers such as deep inspirations (breathing in) and expirations (breathing out), breath-holding, and either slow or forced and rapid inhalations. This is occasionally tiring but not usually painful.

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