A Practical Measure of the Maximum Ventilatory Capacity in Health and Disease

Abstract

The assessment of disability in dust diseases of the lung presents a problem of great practical importance. Available evidence indicates that disturbance of the alveolar respiratory component of pulmonary function is of importance in producing disability only in such diseases as pulmonary sarcoidosis and berylliosis (Ferris, Affeldt, Kriete, and Whitten berger, 1951) where there is a lesion of the alveolar epithelium. Much further work remains to be done before the importance of disturbance of the mixing component of pulmonary function in pro-ducing disability can be evaluated. Evidence is now available, however, that the principal cause of disability in dust diseases of the lung is distur-