[Pulmonary function tests in children and adolescents].
OBJECTIVE
Evaluation of pulmonary function in pediatric patients.


METHODS
Bibliographic review of the main techniques of pulmonary function testing.


CONCLUSIONS
Pulmonary function tests are an important complement to the diagnosis of respiratory illnesses in children. They can also be of help in the follow-up and treatment of these illnesses, and since they can reproduce physiopathological phenomena under laboratory conditions they can also be of help in the study of several diseases. The basic spirometric tests most often used are the volume-time curve (V-T curve) and the flow-volume curve (F-V curve). Bronchial hyperreactivity can be assessed through provocation and effort tests.
Kantor
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Pneumopediatra de Fundação Koutoulas-Ribeiro, Hospital de Clínicas, PAG UFPR, Curitiba, PR.