It is located at the:
Torre Medica Auxilio Mutuo Suite 215, Hospital Auxilio Mutuo, San Juan, PR 00917
For an appointment call: 787-758-2780
Complete Pulmonary Function Lab
The Complete Pulmonary Function Lab at our facility is the only pulmonary laboratory specialized in children located in an ambulatory office setting in Puerto Rico. It offers the advantage of short time appointments and on site physician evaluation and interpretation of results. It also serve as a referral source for specialized pulmonary function testing to other pediatric pulmonologists in Puerto Rico.
What is pulmonary function testing?
Pulmonary function tests are breathing tests to find out how well you move air in and out of your lungs, and how well oxygen enters your body. It is an important tool in the evaluation of a child with pulmonary symptoms. These tests are performed at rest and may require the administration of an inhaler medication such as albuterol to evaluate the response to bronchodilators. At our Lab we can perform the following tests at rest:
Spirometry measures how much air you can breathe into your lungs and how much air you can quickly blow out of your lungs.
Maximal Voluntary Ventilation measures the maximal amount of air a child can breath in a minute.
MIP-MEP measure the maximal amount of inspiratory or expiratory pressure is generated by the respiratory muscles.
Lung volumes and Body Box Plethysmography measure how much air is in your lungs after you take in a deep breath and how much air is left in your lungs after breathing out as much as you can.
Airway resistance measures how hard it is for air to flow in and out of your breathing tubes
Lung diffusion capacity measures how well the oxygen in the air you breathe into your lungs moves from your lungs into your body.
Exhaled Nitric Oxide Testing is a quick way to measure inflammation. The patient will take in a large breath and then breathe out very slowly into a tube connected to a computer.
Bronchial provocation testing (Methacholine Challenge). Spirometry, lung volumes, and airway resistance may also be performed before and after a medication called methacholine. The purpose of the medication is to determine if your airways are more sentistive than they should be due to the medication.
How to prepare for the test
Unless otherwise directed by a physician, STOP inhalers or nebulized medications at least 24 hours before testing.