Pulmonary Function Testing at Owensboro Health
Owensboro Health offers many types of Pulmonary Function Tests, or PFTs, to help your doctor see how well your lungs are working. Physicians use these tests to diagnose asthma and other respiratory conditions.
Some tests may take only 20 minutes, but others will take up to two hours. Talk to your physician or call our respiratory department, 688-2882 for more information.
Spirometry
- The most common type of PFT
- Measures the speed and volume of air you can inhale or exhale
- Allows doctors to determine if an inhaler will help
- Test works by blowing into a mouthpiece
- Located in the hospital’s Sleep Lab on the 5th floor - take Elevator C
Body Box
- Measures lung volume
- Considered the Gold Standard of Pulmonary Function Testing
- Temperature and pressure controls make results more accurate
- The only Body Box in Owensboro
Located at Pennyrile Pulmonary Critical Care. Call (270) 685-7150 to learn more.
Nitrogen Dilution System
- Measures lung volume
- Test works by blowing into a mouthpiece
- Located in the hospital’s Sleep Lab on the 5th floor - take Elevator C
Diffusion Capacity
- Measures how well your lungs transfer gasses into your bloodstream
- Test works by blowing into a mouthpiece, holding your breath and then blowing out rapidly
- Performed in the hospital’s Sleep Lab on the 5th floor (take Elevator C) or in the offices of Pennyrile Pulmonary Critical Care
Methacholine Testing
- For patients who do not have classic asthma symptoms
- Technicians induce asthma reaction in a controlled environment
- May require multiple tests
- Located in the hospital’s Sleep Lab on the 5th floor - take Elevator C
