Current Approaches in Infant Pulmonary Function Testing

Abstract

Pulmonary function testing in infants has grown from basic measurements of lung mechanics, volumes and breathing patterns to sophisticated measurements of forced expiratory flows, fractional lung volumes, and sensitive tests of small airway function. New tests continue to be developed that extend our understanding of lung function in health and disease. The indications for infant pulmonary function testing continue to be refined. This review highlights studies that involve some of the techniques, their role in detecting abnormalities in different conditions, and the information that they can provide about several diseases in recent years. Impediments to testing, including need for sedation, labor-intensive nature of the tests and lack of large normative data sets, remain obstacles for more widespread use of the techniques.