Are PFTs useful when investigating Children’s Interstitial Lung Disease (chILD)?

The usefulness of pulmonary function tests (PFTs) in Children’s interstitial lung disease (chILD) is still undetermined, despite widespread use in adult interstitial lung disease.

A recent review by Ring et al. (2020) identifies the gaps in knowledge and suggests future research objectives regarding spirometry, whole-body plethysmography, infant and pre-school PFTs.

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Some key findings from the review include:

• Some data indicate that PFTs may be helpful in some stages of management of children with suspected chILD.
• As with adult ILD, it is highly unlikely that many if any specific diagnoses of chILD will be made in the physiology laboratory, but lung function techniques may well be used to place monitoring of treatment benefit on an objective footing.

Read the full review: https://doi.org/10.1183/16000617.0019-2020