Executive Summary: 2017 ERS/ATS standards for single-breath carbon monoxide uptake in the lung

Abstract

This document summarises 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. The full standards are also available online as https://doi.org/10.1183/13993003.00016-2016 . The major changes in these technical standards relate to D LCO measurement with systems using rapidly responding gas analysers for carbon monoxide and the tracer gas, which are now the most common type of D LCO instrumentation being manufactured. Technical improvements and the increased capability afforded by these new systems permit enhanced measurement of D LCO and the opportunity to include other optional measures of lung function.