11 - Pulmonary Function Tests in Infants and Children

Abstract

Lung function testing in early life can provide information on lung growth and development and can help clinicians in the decision making process. However, the techniques available in infants and preschool-age children are usually not adequately validated for these age groups. Understanding the impact of measurement conditions on the data is essential to achieving valid results. Infant lung function tests are still limited to research settings in highly specialized lung function laboratories and are not suited for the everyday clinical use. In contrast, tests in preschoolers are easy to perform; most of the tests only require minimal subject cooperation and can be undertaken as early as 3 years of age with high feasibility. The main limitations of these techniques are that they are more useful at detecting differences between groups of healthy children and children with lung disease, but they are not specific and sensitive enough to be utilized in individuals in the clinical practice. Interpretation of the results also requires comprehensive understanding of respiratory physiology. There are promising techniques in the focus of pediatric respiratory research in recent years that are likely to improve the clinical utility of lung function measurements during these critical years of lung development.