Laboratory evaluation of pulmonary function

Abstract

In this review, it was our intention to provide information about pulmonary function testing that would be useful by the physician that uses the results of laboratory to study disordered respiratory physiology for clinical purposes. Despite of multiplicity and diversity, the results of pulmonary function testing would be understood like a sectorial and restricted vision of an complex process not entirely comprehended. Inside this process we boarded specifically some themes of interest represented by the study of: forced spirometry, lung volumes, arterial blood gases and pulmonary diffusion capacity.