Lung Volume Standards for Healthy Male Lifetime Nonsmokers

¹ From the Exercise Physiology Laboratory, School of Education, The Flinders University of South Australia, Bedford Park, South Australia

Functional residual capacity (FRC), residual volume (RV), vital capacity (VC), and total lung capacity (TLC) were measured in 162 men aged 18.9 to 78.6 years using a multiple breath helium dilution technique. Multiple regression equations were generated to predict these lung parameters from the best weighted combination (p0.05) of age, mass, standing height, body surface area, sitting height, biacromial breadth, end-tidal chest girth, expanded chest girth, and chest expansion (FRC: R=.748, SEE= 504 ml; RV: R=.725, SEE=301 ml; VC: R=.808, SEE=537 ml; TLC: R=.808, SEE=551 ml; RV/TLC: R=.778, SEE=4.15 percent). The range of normality was defined as the predicted value±the 95 percent confidence interval (two-tailed test). Cross-validation of other FRC, RV, VC, and TLC equations in the literature indicated that they were unsuitable for use with our data.