Pulmonary function testing in young children

Abstract

Specific knowledge on paediatric physiology and adapted material are necessary to perform pulmonary function testing (PFT) with reliable results in young children (2-6 years). During this age period, although co-operation is minimal, successful testing data can greatly be enhanced because of team experience and motivation. A range of equipment able to measure resistance and spirometry is now widely available, but technical issues have to be considered before its use in young children. In this review, we detail equipment, data collection, reference values and clinical applications for resistance measurements (forced oscillation technique, interrupter technique and plethysmography) and spirometry. All these non-invasive techniques can be easily repeated in order to monitor treatment and lung development in congenital and early-acquired respiratory diseases.