Understanding Spirometry result

Hi Jehinch,

Sorry but I have never understood all those numbers either. Every year I have my doc order the lung function test to have a baseline to compare to. I do know that I have only 30 % lung function with a 70% loss due to permanent damage. Never smoked. Born with diseased lungs. I am now 56 and I suppose that since my early 30's I have not worsened a whole lot more and it does not really matter for me to know if I am in end stages or not.

I refuse to die from COPD. REFUSE. I am a walking miracle. If you want to know which stage you are just so you can worry about it, please don't do that to yourself. Bottom line is to find the right medications that keep you able to get your deep breath, take them faithfully, learn and practice breathing control. We live in a great scientific era and the new medications are fabulous! I lived through every medication beginning from birth and when these new ones became available in the middle to latter 90's up to now, I thanked God because my level of suffocation became more bearable.

I wish the best for you!

💛 Dawn, USA

I recently had a spirometer test and was given a printout of the results which also showed the expected result for healthy lungs for people of your age, sex, weight and height. I checked all the terms out on the net and everything was fully explained. My results were normal so i threw the printout away otherwise i could of helped. 

FEV1 is the amount of air that you expelled in the first second.

FVC is the total amount of air that you managed to expel.

On the printout there should be an indication of the normal range for yourself.

Here is a link to the personalised normal results for people.

http://www.dynamicmt.com/dataform3.html

Surely the issue is your symptoms and how to manage them rather than the mild/mloderate/severe label?  Couldn't you have just asked the person doing the test if they were too lazy or stuck up to explain!