PFT Safety Recommendations during COVID-19 and beyond: Testing equipment, method, and procedures. A review of the ATS/APCCSDD Task Force and ERS Statements Pulmonary function testing (PFT) has a whole new set of safety considerations in the COVID-19 world. Given the reality that PFT presents a high risk of COVID-19 transmission among patients/ subjects and clinicians, the American Thoracic Society (ATS) issued a statement1 last April with three directives: 1. PFT should be performed only when essential for immediate treatment decisions; 2. Only the most essential tests should be performed; 3. Protective measures should be implemented for both the staff and patients. Protective measures like wearing masks, gloves, and gowns are familiar to all of us. But what kind of protective measures do the testing devices need to have? And what about the testing procedure? And the testing environment? Contact us for user reference information.

COVID-19 Recommendations for PFT These questions were addressed in an article2 published in July's ATS Journal by a task force consisting of members of the Association of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Division Directors (APCCSDD) and American Thoracic Society (ATS), as well in a statement3 released in early May by the European Respiratory Society (ERS) Group 9.1. These two position papers provide a variety of safety recommendations for limiting the risk of viral transmission in testing clinics. These include criteria for resuming PFT, patient prioritization, screening and testing for SARS-CoV-2,...

The MiniBox+ Complete PFT device by PulmOne meets each of the above recommendations, with additional operational advantages as described below. 1. Testing is performed with a fully compliant bacterial/viral filter, which has successfully passed both BFE (Bacterial Filtration Efficiency) and VFE (Viral Filtration Efficiency) testing for organisms as small as 0.025 ㎛. As mentioned above, the Coronavirus species ranges in size from 0.06 to 0.2 ㎛. 2. As a cabinless plethysmography device, exhaled air is fully contained and droplet contamination is marginal during testing. 3. The disinfection and...