The clinical usefulness of a screening test to detect static pulmonary blood using a multiple-breath analysis of diffusing capacity.

We devised a screening test to detect static blood in the lungs (e.g., with pulmonary vascular obstruction or pulmonary hemorrhage). A back pressure to CO will develop in static blood as the concentration of carboxyhemoglobin increases with time, and diffusing capacity (DLCO) will decrease. Instead of obtaining a single value for DLCO, we calculated DLCO over small decrements of the exhaled vital capacity during 4 sequential breaths using a modification of a method developed in our laboratory. In each of 5 healthy subjects there was no difference in DLCO during the 4 sequential breaths in the sitting, supine, or lateral decubitus positions. However, in a patient with a proved pulmonary embolus, DLCO decreased with sequential breaths, expecially at low lung volumes. In a patient with angiographic evidence of kinking of the left pulmonary artery when he assumed the right lateral decubitus position, DLCO showed a sequential decrease in this position only. Three patients with pulmonary hemorrhage also showed decreases in DLCO during sequential breaths during episodes of active bleeding.