Clinical Tests of Respiratory Function PDF

Preface

In the 25 years since the first edition of this book, respiratory function tests have become more integrated within the clinical practice of respiratory medicine, though perhaps not always with the discrimination desirable. Technological advances and computerization have brought great benefits in terms of convenience and accuracy, but there is a downside, with some erosion of technical skills and less accessible raw measurements. The need to understand the basis of the tests in order to use them optimally has not diminished.

A great fillip to the discipline has been the increasing recognition of sleep-disordered breathing and the explosive expansion of respiratory measurements during sleep. At the same time, measurements on exercise have become more generally available and also better standardized. Although sleep and exercise measurements are both covered more comprehensively in monographs dedicated specifically to them, their increasing importance in respiratory function testing is reflected by more extensive coverage in this edition. Even in traditional areas, such as asthma and chronic airways disease, where functional measurements are well established, better understanding of pathophysiology and improvements in technology have expanded their rational application.

The aims of the book are essentially unchanged – to explain the pathophysiology underlying the most useful tests of respiratory function in disease, at rest, during exercise and during sleep; to describe the abnormalities seen both in respiratory and nonrespiratory disease; and to review the value and interpretation of the measurements in clinical practice. Many recent references have been added but, inevitably, the choice is selective and relevant earlier references have been retained, not least because reviewing the recent literature shows that reinvention of the wheel is not uncommon.