ABSTRACT
The increasing use of lung transplantation over the past 20 years has provided a major focus for evaluating respiratory function, both in pre-transplant assessment and in post-transplant monitoring. Among the many factors that influence the function of transplanted lungs are the following:
•Nature of the pre-transplant disease: the advanced stages of many diseases are accepted indications for transplantation. These include various types of interstitial lung disease, in which the native lungs are generally shrunken and fibrotic and a marked restrictive ventilatory defect is present; chronic airway disease, particularly chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and cystic fibrosis, in which varying degrees of lung and chest wall hyperinflation are present; and pulmonary hypertension, both primary and secondary to congenital heart disease, in which mechanical abnormalities of the native lungs and chest wall are minor or absent.
