What is the Lung Diffusion test (DLCO)?
The DLCO measures how easily oxygen can diffuse from your lungs into your body. Impaired oxygen diffusion into your body may be caused by diseases of the lungs, heart, and blood. During the test, your technician will ask you to breathe-in as deep as possible and then hold your breath for a brief amount of time. This allows the oxygen enough time to move from your lungs into your body. At the end of the breath hold, you will force all of your air out. This test requires good timing between you and your technician, so follow their instructions closely. You will be asked to perform this test 2 to 4 times. What is a Single Breath O2? The Single Breath O2 measures how well the air you breathe-in is distributed within your lungs. Once the air enters your lungs it should be distributed relatively evenly to the different parts of your lungs. Various heart and lung diseases may cause the air to be poorly distributed within the lungs, resulting in less oxygen making it into the body. During this
