PFT test

[felinial]

Have copd.  Starting smoking at very early age.  Smoked for forty years.  took two pft s  they said i gave a poor effort. that i failed it in essence.  yet the caseworker said they showed severe.  my question is how does one fail a breathing test when breathing is the problem? I did not like being told that i gave a poor effort. i did the best i could do i thought my eyes would pop out they had me trying to exhale so hard.

[ladius]

ive found that most doctors really dont care and want to go through as many patients as quickly as they can. i had a doctor write me a prescription for some skin thing the other week without looking at the skin even. go to another doctor dude and keep tryign for a good one ;0)

[National Jewish Health]

The usual reason for one to "fail a breathing test" has nothing to do with the severity of the lung disease, but everything to do with effort.  It has been known for a long time that the results of someone’s repeated efforts are remarkably similar, when those efforts are the best he/she can give.  When the effort is not truly maximum it is very difficult to reproduce the same results.  At the same time, there are some people who simply are unable to consistently exert the same effort.

I suggest that you ask to take the test again, perhaps with a more sympathetic technician.  The other thing you should do is to ask for the data on the test that gave the best results.  Your actual lung function will be at least that good and may be better than your best, that day.

Finally, your doctor should be able to provide a reasonable estimate of your lung function, on a clinical basis, by examining you, and treat you accordingly, to give you some relief of symptoms.