A Quick Guide to Understanding PFTs Results

Pulmonary function tests (PFTs) provide information about how well the lungs are working and give the healthcare team many different measurements that help to determine what treatments will be most effective. By testing the lung function in different ways, different types of information can be gathered. Your healthcare team will explain your PFT results in detail, and, of course, they are available to answer any questions you may have.

For times when you’re looking over your PFT results on your own and need a little reminder to help decipher the alphabet soup created by the abbreviations, we’ve put together a quick list of the common measurements taken during pulmonary function tests. 

Common measurements taking during PFTs

Take a look and keep this list handy as a reference.

• Tidal volume (VT): the amount of air inhaled or exhaled during normal breathing
• Minute volume (MV): the total amount of air exhaled per minute
• Vital capacity (VC): the total amount of air that can be exhaled after inhaling as much as you can
• Functional residual capacity (FRC): the amount of air remaining in lungs after breathing out normally
• Forced vital capacity (FVC): the amount of air exhaled forcefully and quickly after breathing in as much as you can
• Forced expiratory volume (FEV1): the volume of air exhaled during the first second of the forced vital capacity (FVC) test
• Forced expiratory flow (FEF): the average rate of flow during the middle half of the forced vital capacity (FVC) test
• Peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR): the maximum volume during forced exhalation