med 610 clinical respiratory diseases & critcare med

Pulmonary Function Testing Cases

The following cases are designed to help you learn how to interpret pulmonary function tests. Each case contains a short clinical scenario and the pulmonary function tests for that patient. For each case, you should attempt to

  • describe the pattern of abnormality, if one is present,
  • grade the severity of the abnormality and
  • generate a differential diagnosis for the observed abnormality.

The cases have been provided by Kenneth Steinberg, MD, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine.

  • Case 1>> A 65 year-old man undergoes pulmonary function testing as part of a routine health-screening test.
  • Case 2>> A 54 year-old man presents to his primary care provider with dyspnea and a cough.
  • Case 3>> A 60 year-old man presents to his primary care provider with complaints of increasing dyspnea on exertion.
  • Case 4>> A 25 year-old man presents to his physician with complaints of dyspnea and wheezing.
  • Case 5>> A 41 year-old woman presents to the General Internal Medicine Clinic at Harborview Medical Center complaining of dyspnea with mild exertion.
  • Case 6>> A 30 year-old woman presents for evaluation of dyspnea on exertion which has been present for 2 months.
  • Case 7>> A 73 year-old man presents with progressive dyspnea on exertion over the past one year.
  • Case 8>> A 64 year-old woman presents with complaints of dyspnea and orthopnea. She is a life-long non-smoker.
  • Case 9>> A 35 year-old previously healthy man presents with dyspnea, fevers, chills and night sweats for the past 2 months.
  • Case 10>> A 53 year-old woman presents with increasing dyspnea on exertion. She denies cough, fevers, hemoptysis, weight loss or sweats.
  • Case 11>> A 36 year-old woman presents with a several month history of worsening dyspnea on exertion and exercise limitation.
  • Case 12>> A 44 year-old woman with cirrhosis secondary to chronic alcohol abuse and Hepatitis C presents with complaints of increasing dyspnea.

Abbreviations used in cases:

FVC
Forced Vital Capacity
FEV1
Forced Expiratory Volume in One Second
TLC
Total Lung Capacity
RV
Residual Volume
DLCO
Diffusion Capacity for Carbon Monoxide
BD
Bronchodilator

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