spirometry test class 1 medical initial

[guyleedsutd]

Can anyone shed any light on the spirometry test .I regularly get 550 _600 but am 34 and feel fairlyfit but the chart show I should be getting 650.how is the percentage calculated and is it possible to tell your 1st second score with the peak flow meter or is the machine at gatwick a little more advanced than just using a peak flow meter

[SkyCamMK]

Hi perhaps you have small lungs and/or a limited aerobic capacity for your age, as an example I am over 60 do not exercise much these days and regularly test at over 650 even now. Cycling and jogging should improve the capacity within 6 weeks if you train several times per week. The class one has to allow for deterioration with age hence the high start numbers in all categories. if you are healthy improve your fitness. That's it really...

[Ulster]

Cycling and jogging should improve the capacity within 6 weeks if you train several times per week

Sorry, can't really agree with that ! PFR is one of the human parameters where you find yourself at a certain point on the (wide) spectrum which is called normality, and little that you do is likely to change it much, if at all ! Most healthy adult male pilots' PFRs are in the range of 500 - 700.

The figures quoted by the OP are very unlikely to raise any eyebrows at the Belgrano, unless there is a specific history of treatment for asthma or something similar in childhood. In that case expect to be instructed to RUN around the building, and have the PFR re-tested on your return ! :=

[SkyCamMK]

Hi Ulster, yes you may well be right.

My own experience in both military and fire service basic training was that after 6 weeks persons were significantly fitter and after I started using a heart rate monitor in the early 90s I could plot certain improvements. Peak flow was not recorded weekly then and I know as I got older it was adversly affected.

My basic point is that for an initial medical one needs to be what we used to call A1G1Z1 and be as fit as possible before submitting to the assessment.

6 weeks of intensive exercise would put someone in a better position to do well and would have the benefit of feeling and maybe even recording his own increasing level of fitness.

My anecdotal evidence of increased fitness does not equate to scientific or medical evidence and I hope an expert may add something to answer his reasonable question. But if not, should he not get using that aerobic system ASAP and be better prepared?

[Radgirl]

Sorry Ulster is correct. These lung measurements cannot be changed by exercise or other life choices. I don't agree you need to be particularly fit to pass a medical merely to have an absence of pathology. I really can't see what sudden intense exercise could do except cause musculoskeletal injury

Peak flow can be a third down on normal before it means much. It is a very general test, needs to be done properly, and isn't very sensitive. FEV1 is undertaken on a more expensive machine and is more sensitive. Both measure both restrictive disease such as fibrosis and obstructive disease such as asthma. We also measure the total volume of air exhaled called FVC and the ratio of FEV1 to FVC is reduced in obstructive disease but not in restrictive disease so it is a discriminator

I wouldn't wory about your reading if you have no history of lung disease

[cavortingcheetah]

The smoking of a really good Havana cigar before an aviation medical usually guarantees that the spirometry test will be fudged or otherwise circumvented. The next victim to inhale up the tube, after all, would not want a previously deposited tasty lungful of Cohiba and so the medic is obliged, since he cannot penalise one for smelling delectably of a good smoke, to apply a pragmatic sanction.

[gingernut]

There is a difference between "peak flow" and "spirometry."

I'm a little out of the loop with the AME class 1 stuff, but I suspect that spirometry would reveal little in a 34 yr old, without symptoms, peak flowing 550-600.

It sounds like you have the lungs of an ox.

[Ulster]

It sounds like you have the lungs of an ox

. . . . . . . . . . so perhaps you should consult a local vet with a respiratory interest !

Seriously ; book your class 1 date - can't really see any problem at all on the facts so far !

Good luck ! :ok: