This document provides an update to the European Respiratory Society
(ERS)/American Thoracic Society (ATS) technical standards for
single-breath carbon monoxide uptake in the lung that was last updated
in 2005. Although both DLCO (diffusing capacity) and TLCO (transfer factor) are valid terms to describe the uptake of carbon monoxide in the lung, the term DLCO is used in this document. A joint taskforce appointed by the ERS and ATS reviewed the recent literature on the measurement of DLCO
and surveyed the current technical capabilities of instrumentation
being manufactured around the world. The recommendations in this
document represent the consensus of the taskforce members in regard to
the evidence available for various aspects of DLCO
measurement.
Furthermore, it reflects the expert opinion of the
taskforce members on areas in which peer-reviewed evidence was either
not available or was incomplete. The major changes in these technical
standards relate to DLCO measurement with systems
using rapidly responding gas analysers for carbon monoxide and the
tracer gas, which are now the most common type of DLCO
instrumentation being manufactured. Technical improvements and the
increased capability afforded by these new systems permit enhanced
measurement of DLCO and the opportunity to include other optional measures of lung function.
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