Study of pulmonary function in different age groups

Introduction: Interpretation of lung function measurements is complicated by the fact that predicted values from the different published studies vary as much as 20% for an individual subjects. Therefore, having local and native prediction equations for PFTs will enhance the reliability of the spirometry performed. Methodology : Data was collected by randomly selecting in total 200 healthy non-smoking individuals.100 were males and 100 females .The oldest subject was 50 years old & youngest 11 years, mean age being 31 years. They were further subdivided into age groups 11-20, 21-30, 31-40 and 41-50; each group having 50 subjects .Forced vital capacity (FVC), Forced expiratory volume in first second (FEV1), Percentage of ratio between FEV1 and FVC (FEV1 / FVC %), and Peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) were the criteria used for assessment of pulmonary function. The values of FEV 1, FVC, FEV 1/FVC % and PEFR were observed to be higher in the age group 21-30 than those falling in age group 11-20 indicating the phase of lung growth. Results: The results showed a decline in all the parameters after the age of 30 which may be attributed to physiological changes of the respiratory system occurring due to ageing. Key Word s: Pulmonary function test , Forced vital capacity