Test de respiración única para la capacidad de difusión de monóxido de carbono (DLCO) y su interpretación en enfermedades autoinmunes. Historia y bases fisiológicas

the single breath test of carbon monoxide (co) uptake has a long history /from its birth by krogh and krogh in 1909 to the first publication describing a standardized technique for the diffusing capacity measurement (dlco) by ogilvie in 1957. the dlco was devised originally as a physiological tool to test the notion (now abandoned) that the lung, like the swim bladder of some deep-sea fish, could secrete oxygen against the normal tension gradient provided by inspired air. the dlco was introduced as a clinical test by marie krogh in 1915, but the measurement never caught on because methods of measuring carbon monoxide were so cumbersome. in the 1950s, with the introduction of the infra-red co meter (developed in germany, in world war ii) interest in the dlco revived, and several different methods for measuring dlco in patients with pulmonary diseases were in use various steady state methods, the single breath and rebreathing techniques.