Pulmonary function tests (PFTs) are used to determine how well lungs are working. The most common test is Spirometry, which assesses how well lungs work by measuring how much air can be breathed in, how much air can be breathed out, and how quickly the patient can breathe out.
Lung Volume testing is also commonly performed. This provides more information than spirometry alone and measures the total volume of air in your lungs, including the air that remains after breathing out as much as possible.
A Transfer Factor test measures how easily oxygen enters the bloodstream.
Exercise testing helps evaluate causes of shortness of breath and assesses fitness for surgical procedures and post-operative recovery needs.
There are also tests to find out if asthma is present when the usual breathing test results are normal.
A plethysmograph is an instrument for measuring changes in volume within an organ or whole body, usually resulting from fluctuations in the amount of blood or air it contains. The word is derived from the Greek “plethysmos” (increasing, enlarging, becoming full), and “graphein” (to write).
A Pulmonary Plethysmograph, or Whole Body Plethysmograph as it is more commonly known, is the ‘Gold Standard’ technique used to perform Lung Volume testing. The measurements made include the total volume of air in the lungs, including the air that remains after breathing out as much as possible.
Spirometry is the most common type of breathing test. It is used to assess how well a patient’s lungs work by measuring how much air he/she breathes in, how much air they can breathe out, and how quickly they can breathe out.
Spirometry is used to diagnose asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and other conditions that can affect breathing. It may also be used to monitor lung condition and check whether a treatment for a chronic lung condition is helping to improve breathing.
The Wright Respirometer was invented by Dr Basil Martin Wright and was introduced into clinical practice in 1958. It is used by anaesthetists to monitor the functioning of the anaesthesia ventilator. It is also occasionally used after surgery and anaesthesia to assess whether a patient is breathing well enough on their own to have the endotracheal (breathing) tube removed.
The Wright and Haloscale respirometers measure the volume (amount) of air exhaled during a single normal (tidal) breath, or the volume exhaled over the course of one minute of normal breathing (minute volume). With the use of special adaptors, the respirometer is placed in the exhalation side of the breathing system. Inside the cylindrical housing of the device is a small turbine that is very sensitive to the flow of air in one direction only. As the exhaled breath of a patient moves past the vanes of the turbine, the resulting rotation is transferred to pointers on the clock-like face of the respirometer. The position of the pointers after a single exhalation, or after one minute of breathing, indicates the volume of air that has passed through the device.
A Body Box, or Whole Body Plethysmograph as it is more properly called, is the ‘Gold Standard’ technique used to perform Lung Volume testing. Other methods of measuring lung volumes can only measure the size of the ventilated areas of your lungs. Whole Body Plethysmography measures both the ventilated and unventilated areas of the lungs. The unventilated areas increase in size in some chronic conditions including COPD and Emphysema.
A Whole Body Plethysmograph can also be used to measure the resistance and conductance of the airways.
Provided you use a single patient use bacterial/viral pulmonary function filter for every patient, the lifetime flow sensor (Gemtach) only needs to be cleaned every couple of months using our simple cleansing and disinfection procedure. Some other brands of spirometers and PFT machines have disposable flow sensors which can be significantly more expensive over time.
Yes! KoKo PFT filters, like all other pulmonary function filters, are single patient use only, after which they are disposed of as clinical waste.
Filters should have low levels of resistance because lower resistance leads to more accurate results. The American Thoracic Society states that resistance levels in filters should not exceed 1.5 cmH20/L/s. We pride ourselves at KoKo PFT on our filters having extremely low resistance levels of 0.43 cmH20/L/s and 0.57 cmH20/L/s.
All equipment in the UK can be covered by a 12-month master cover maintenance contract. This includes 2 preventative maintenance visits (services) per year and covers any required breakdown visits. The contract price includes all the parts and labour, and the price of the contract will vary depending on the age of the equipment.
In order to do this, please contact us and we will be happy to assist you.
We aim to respond to urgent service or repair enquiries within a working day, and our trained technicians will usually attempt to visit the customer within 24-48 hours. Our response times are typically quicker than other companies in the pulmonary function testing industry.
This will depend on what version of KoKo software you have. You can look this up by clicking on “Help”, then “About” in the upper menu bar within your KoKo software. Please contact us with your KoKo spirometer’s serial number and we will assist you.
Pulmonary Function Filters are single-patient-use devices employed in Spirometry and PFTs to avoid cross-contamination between patients. The filters trap water droplets and usually contain a flat pad of electrostatically charged fibres. PFT filters have a low resistance to air flow, so they are easy to breathe through. They are laboratory tested to ensure that they are efficient at preventing bacteria and most viruses from passing through the filter medium, being up to 99.999% effective.
KoKo SX Version 7 Spirometers require computers with a minimum of 8 GB RAM, i5 processor 9th Gen or better, 250 GB SSD with 50 GB available and Windows 10 Professional.
KoKo devices require a single patient use bacterial/viral pulmonary function filter. This prevents cross-contamination and works as a mouthpiece that can be disposed of after the patient has completed their test. Additionally, nose clips and rubber mouthpieces are recommended to minimise leakage through the nose, and to help patients create a tighter seal around their mouth during a test.
KoKo devices can connect with virtually any HL7 compliant EMR. Our list of EMR implementations is constantly growing. Please contact us to find out the specifics regarding your EMR.
Having a pulmonary function filter with a low dead space is important because it lowers the risk of a patient rebreathing significant amount of carbon dioxide in the preceding expired breath. KoKo PFT filters have an extremely low dead space of 50ml and 70ml.
KoKo PFT is the only company in the world to manufacture mechanical Respirometers. No other respiratory volume measurement instruments are better recognised anywhere in the world.