Functional Respiratory Evaluation in the COVID-19 Era: The Role of Pulmonary Function Test Laboratories.

Gochicoa-Rangel, Laura; Torre-Bouscoulet, Luis; Salles Rojas, Antonio; Guzmán-Valderrábano, Carlos; Silva-Cerón, Mónica; Benítez-Pérez, Rosaura E; Salas-Escamilla, Isabel; Madrid-Mejía, Wilmer; Grosso-Espinosa, Juan M

The pandemic character of coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) requires strategy changes designed to guarantee the safety of patients and health-care professionals. We are greatly concerned by the limitations in the operation of pulmonary function test (PFT) laboratories, since there is a high risk of disease progression in patients with chronic pulmonary diseases, and we are now faced by the influx of a new group of individuals in the recovery phase of post-COVID-19-syndrome that requires evaluation and follow-up of their respiratory function. To reestablish the operation of PFT laboratories limiting the risk of cross-contamination, we herein present the consensus reached by a group of experts in respiratory physiology, most of whom work in PFT laboratories in several Latin American countries, on the applicable recommendations for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 pneumonia survivors when undergoing PFT. We present the safety and hygiene measures that must be adopted in laboratories or centers where PFT is conducted in adults and/or children. These recommendations answer the following questions: which PFT is most recommended in subjects that have recovered from COVID-19; what quality control and safety measures should PFT laboratories implement during this pandemic? And how should we approach non-COVID-19 patients requiring PFT?