Body plethysmography in the evaluation of intrathoracic airway abnormalities.
A patient with a previously unsuspected intrathoracic tracheal malignancy presented with symptoms suggestive of asthma and an unusual pattern seen by conventional PFTs. Reduced expiratory flows with a large difference between FVC and SVC, normal inspiratory flows and high MVV/FEV1 were found. Body plethysmography using normal and panting efforts with increasing tidal volume and flow helped define the lesion as a variable intrathoracic obstruction and document its regression after palliative therapy.
Reinoso
M A
MA
Division of Thoracic Diseases and Internal Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. 55905.
Jett
J R
JR
Beck
K C
KC
D000328:Adult; D001249:Asthma / Q000175:diagnosis; D001999:Bronchoscopy; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D005541:Forced Expiratory Volume; D006801:Humans; D010993:Plethysmography, Whole Body; D013902:Radiography, Thoracic; D014134:Tracheal Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D014797:Vital Capacity