You’ve probably had your blood pressure and heart rate checked when you were a child, even until now. Ask yourself this, when was the last time someone actually looked at how your lungs are doing? The lungs are as important as your blood pressure and heart rate, and are one of the vital organs that keeps you moving in life. So, how could we monitor it? Let me introduce you to Spirometry. Spirometry is a simple, painless test that helps monitor response to treatment, measuring how well your lungs are working, and can help guide your doctor to make the next important decision.¹
The medical device records how much air you can breathe in and out over a period of time. It just requires you to breathe into a mouthpiece that is connected to a spirometer.² Simple and straight forward right? Doctors use it mainly to figure out if you are having respiratory problems such as coughing, and struggling to breathe. In fact, it's one of the main tests that is used to test asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)³ Not only that, it is useful for monitoring existing conditions, checking if you are fit for surgery, and catching early signs of trouble in people who work around dust or chemicals.⁴ It is quite breathtaking that such a simple method can help detect several issues in the lungs that may cause harm in the future. That said, if you’ve recently had a heart attack, eye surgery, or a collapsed lung, your doctor might advise against it.⁵
The test takes about 15 to 30 minutes. You sit upright with a nose clip on, take a deep breath, then blow out as fast and forcefully as possible into the mouthpiece.⁶ You will have to repeat this process to get more accurate results. It could happen that you get light headed, but that is completely normal. Most likely, a trained technician will guide you through it so there is nothing to worry about.⁷However, you must make sure to avoid heavy meals, caffeine, smoking or certain inhalers before you do the test, just to be safe. ⁸
Your results are compared to what's the average for your weight, age, gender and ethnicity, which have to be stated before the test.⁹ The result should include the FVC, which is the total air exhaled, and FEV1, which is the air exhaled in the first second.¹⁰The ratio between them tells you more about your lungs, where a low ratio volume may suggest lung disease. On the other hand, you should be happy that the ratio is high, indicating healthy lungs.¹¹ However, Spirometry is not always the most accurate. It can't measure trapped air after normal breath, so other tests may be needed if you want to find that out. It is still a quick, non-invasive way of checking your lungs. So don't be afraid to do a Spirometry test, it's better to be safe than sorry.
References:
¹ Physiopedia. Spirometry
² MedlinePlus. Pulmonary function tests. Bethesda (MD): National Library of Medicine; 2025
³ Health Service Executive (HSE) Ireland. Spirometry.
⁴ COPD Support Ireland. What is spirometry?
⁵ Lungs at Work. Guidance on spirometry: relative contraindications. 2025
⁶ Quirón Salud. Spirometry.
⁷ NHS Cornwall. Performance of spirometry in adults: clinical guideline CG/102/24.
⁸ Uscom Ltd. SpiroSonic education: what is spirometry?
⁹ National Institutes of Health. Table 3: spirometry reference values.
¹⁰ Schiavi E, et al. Application of the ERS/ATS spirometry standards and race-neutral equations. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2024;210(11):1317.\
¹¹ Cleveland Clinic. Forced expiratory volume at one second (FEV1). 2026.