What is a Spirometer?
A spirometer is a machine for testing lung function that you breathe in and out of through a hose attached to a mouthpiece. It can measure a fair number of characteristics of your lungs, including FVC, FEV1, and PEPR. FVC, or forced vital capacity, is the amount of air that you can exhale forcefully after taking a deep breath. FEV1, or forced expiratory volume in one second, is the amount of air that you can be exhale in one second. PEFR is the peak expiratory flow rate. A peak flow meter is a little device into which you blow hard, after having taken a deep breath. It records the rate at which you’ve blown into it in liters exhaled per minute (L/min).This is called the peak expiratory flow rate.
A spirometer is a machine for testing lung function that you breathe in and out of through a hose attached to a mouthpiece. You are usually given nose clips so that all the air you breathe goes through the machine. One I’ve been tested on had a little expanding tank surrounded by water into which the air goes, and I could see the top rising and falling as I breathed out and in. It can measure a fair number of characteristics of your lungs, including FVC, FEV1, and PEPR. FVC, or forced vital capacity, is the amount of air that you can exhale forcefully after taking a deep breath. FEV1, or forced expiratory volume in one second, is the amount of air that you can be exhale in one second. Peak flow, or PEPR, is described in section 1.2.2. The sophisticated spirometers I’ve seen have a PC attached, and have neat little curves generated with each breath, which apparently have characteristic shapes for different respiratory diseases. There is a slightly less sophisticated machine that I’ve bl
