Evaluation of Pulmonary Function: Results in Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease

Abstract

This review deals with the evaluation of pulmonary function studies (pulmonary impairment and disability, discrimination and variability of respiratory tests, dyspnea and objective function studies, epidemiologic studies), chronic bronchitis, air pollution, and smoking; chronic obstructive emphysema, (control of ventilation, mechanics of breathing, ventilation, perfusion, and diffusion physiologic-roentgenographic correlations, physiologic-pathologic correlations, pathophysiology and prognosis), unilateral and lobar emphysema, bronchial asthma (pathophysiology, differentiation of asthma from emphysema, effect of treatment), and physiologic studies of the effects of treatment (endocrines, progesterone, adrenal cortical steroids; artificial ventilation, respiratory stimulants, breathing exercises; surgery: tracheostomy, tracheal fenestration, and tracheoplasty; tracheal stabilization, resection of bullae and denerva-tion). There are 251 references.