Clinical Value of the Forced Expiratory Time Measured during Auscultation

Abstract

CERTAIN cases of obstructive lung disease demonstrate a wide discrepancy between interpretation of physical findings and appraisal by pulmonary-function studies. The inadequacies of the usual clinical examination of the chest are indicated by the study of Fletcher,¹ which concluded that the diagnosis of obstructive pulmonary emphysema could not be made with any degree of certainty on the basis of physical examination alone, by the observation of abnormal pulmonary function in many asthmatic subjects when they are symptom free and without clinical signs² and by the unreliability of routine x-ray examination of the chest.³ It is well known that expiration time . . .