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Spirometry should be replaced with a new formula to determine physiological lung age in smokers, according to study findings presented here at CHEST 2009: American College of Chest Physicians Annual Meeting.

The Morris and Thomas lung age formulas currently used are based on absolute values of height and forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV₁) or forced vital capacity (FVC). Even patients with reduced airflow measurements can be pegged as being statistically within normal values using these formulas, asserted principal investigator James E. Hansen, MD, professor emeritus, University of California at Los Angeles, currently at the Division of Respiratory and Critical Care Physiology and Medicine, Department of Medicine, Los Angeles Biomedical Institute at Harbor UCLA Medical Center in Torrance. This gives patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) a false sense of normalcy, he said. Read More at This Link

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