Nurse: Take a big deep breath in, up, up, up, up! Suck it in – blow hard! Blast out fast! Blow it out, blow it out, blow it out, blow, blow, blow. Breathe deep, up, up, up, up and catch your breath
Narrator: Ed King is working hard to find out how well his lungs are functioning.
Nurse: Let's do that again. Same thing.
Narrator: He's doing a lung function test called Spirometry. Ed suffers from COPD – Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. It's progressive…getting worse over time and there's no cure.
Ed King: You might have an easy day of breathing. The next day you get up, you may not have an easy day of breathing.
Nurse: Breathe deep, up, up, up, up and let it go.
Narrator: In patients like Ed…doctors follow disease progression and sometimes make treatment changes. Spirometry is an important tool in both monitoring and diagnosing COPD.
David Schulman, MD, MPH: And with that we measure two things. The amount of air they can move in and out of their lungs and the speed with which they do it.
Nurse: Blow HARD! Blast out fast.
Narrator: Patients are asked to forcefully blow out as much air as they can in one second. That speed is referred to as FEV1 – or Forced Expiratory Volume in 1 second.
David Schulman, MD, MPH: One of the early signs of COPD is obstruction, is the inability to move air out as quickly as you normally should be able to do. FEV1 is a marker of obstruction
Nurse: Now take a BIG breath in.
Narrator: The other measure is referred to as FVC – or Forced Vital Capacity.
Narrator: After a huge inhalation, the amount of air that can be forcibly breathed out is measured.
Nurse: Just a little further, all the way empty, all the way out…and take a big full breath in, up, up, up, up and catch your breath
David Schulman, MD, MPH: The ratio between FEV1 and Forced Vital Capacity is the data point we use to determine whether you have obstructive disease or not.
Narrator: About half of those with COPD don't know it…even though they may have symptoms such as shortness of breath, ongoing cough, wheezing or chest tightness.
Narrator: That's why screening may be suggested if you're a current or former smoker over age 45…have a family history of Emphysema…or worked with chemicals or other lung irritants.
David Schulman, MD, MPH: It's a disease that these folks live with everyday. It's slowly progressive, they don't appreciate the symptoms, and by the time they realize,
wow, I am actually in a different place than I was a few years ago, it's often too late to do anything about it.
Narrator: Since his diagnosis, Ed King has learned to live with his COPD.
Ed King : You accept it for what it's worth, and you wind up with an attitude that generally don't let it whip you
Narrator: Ed and his wife Joyce stay active…she gives him chores to do at home and continues to make travel plans.
Joyce King: I just feel that he's done well, taken it within his stride. So have I, because that's the kind of people we are.
Narrator: For WebMD, I'm Rhonda Rowland.
