Barnes Jewish West County Hospital - Pulmonary Function Lab

Pulmonary Function Lab 1

During a normal day, we breathe nearly 25,000 times, and inhale large amounts of air. While the air we take in contains mostly oxygen and nitrogen, it also has things in it that can harm our lungs, such as bacteria, viruses, tobacco smoke, car exhaust, and other pollutants.

Pulmonary function tests are a group of tests that evaluate how well your lungs work. These tests determine how much air your lungs can hold, how quickly you can move air in and out of your lungs, and how well your lungs put oxygen into and remove carbon dioxide from your blood. The tests can diagnose lung diseases, measure the severity of lung problems, and check to see how well treatment for a lung disease is working.