RANA Respiratory Care Group, Provincial Sleep Group, and Provincial Home Oxygen have rebranded to Careica Health!
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Continue NowOur fully accredited Careica Health Pulmonary Function Labs improve access to pulmonary function testing and provide Certified Respiratory Education (CRE) for patients in Calgary and surrounding towns.
Screen for obstructive and restrictive pulmonary disease.
Document the progression of pulmonary disease.
Evaluate the effectiveness of inhaled respiratory medications.
Complement the respiratory assessment of your patient.
Determine if your patient qualifies for home oxygen.
Manage your patient's current home oxygen therapy.
Aid in AADL qualification for home oxygen.
Certified Respiratory Education helps your patients understand and manage their disease and better improve their quality of life. Appointments (includes spirometry test) are available for education on:
Asthma
COPD (Chronic Obstructive Respiratory Disease)
Smoking Cessation
Careica Health's pulmonary function testing meets American Thoracic Society (ATS) guidelines for quality and accuracy. We use the Medgraphics Elite body plethysmograph and Breeze software.
Spirometry is recommended to confirm a diagnosis of asthma or COPD.
Asthma should be suspected in patients ≥ 6 years of age with a history of recurrent respiratory symptoms including:
COPD should be suspected in patients ≥ 40 years of age, who are smokers or ex-smokers and answer "yes" to any of the following questions:
Testing is completed Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Our last appointment of the day begins at 3 p.m. (We are closed on statutory holidays.)
Using Instrumentation Laboratory GEM Premier 3000 blood gas analyzer. Test includes:
Careica Health's lab performs body plethysmography and spirometry. Some of the specific parameters we measure during testing include the following:
Forced Vital Capacity - after the patient has inhaled the deepest possible breath, the Forced Vital Capacity is the volume of air that can be forcibly and maximally exhaled out of the lungs until no more can be expired. FVC is usually expressed in liters. This PFT value is critically important in the diagnosis of obstructive and restrictive diseases.
Forced Expiratory Volume in One Second - is the volume of air that can be forcibly exhaled from the lungs in the first second of a forced expiratory maneuver. FEV1 is expressed in liters. This PFT value is critically important in the diagnosis of obstructive and restrictive diseases.
This ratio of FEV1 to FVC indicates the percentage of the total FVC expelled from the lungs during the first second of forced exhalation - this number is also called FEV1%, %FEV1 or FEV1/FVC ratio. This PFT value is critically important in the diagnosis of obstructive and restrictive diseases.
Forced Expiratory Volume in Three Seconds - is the volume of air that can be forcibly exhaled in three seconds - measured in Liters. The FEV3 is usually close to the FVC since most of the air in the lungs can be forcibly exhaled in three seconds in the normal individuals.
This ratio of FEV3 to the FVC indicates the percentage of the total FVC expelled during the first three seconds of forced exhalation. This can be called %FEV3 or FEV3%.
Peak Expiratory Flow Rate - is the maximum flow rate achieved by the patient during the forced vital capacity maneuver beginning after full inspiration and starting and ending with maximal expiration. It can be measured in L/sec or L/min. PEFR is a useful to see if treatment improves obstructive diseases like bronchoconstriction secondary to asthma.
Forced Expiratory Flow - Forced Expiratory Flow is a flow rate measurement to determine how much air can be expired from the lungs. FEF is measured as liters/second or liters/minute. The FVC expiratory curve is divided into quartiles, so there is an FEF for each quartile. The quartiles are expressed as FEF25%, FEF50%, and FEF75% of FVC.
The amount of air forcibly expelled in the first 25% of the total forced vital capacity test.
The amount of air expelled from the lungs during the first half (50%) of the forced vital capacity test. This test is useful when looking for obstructive disease. The amount of air expired in an obstructed patient will be smaller than for a normal patient.
The amount of air expelled from the lungs during the middle half of the forced vital capacity test. Many physicians look at this value as an indicator of obstructive disease.
The maximum inspiratory and expiratory pressure that can be developed by the respiratory musculature at specific lung volumes.
Diffusion Capacity - the carbon monoxide uptake from a single inspiration in standard time (usually 10 seconds).
Pulmonary function testing ordered by a physician is usually covered by Alberta Health and Wellness, if the patient has a valid Alberta Health Card (AHC). Reciprocal agreements with other provincial health service payment plans are also in place, so the costs of testing out-of-province patients are paid by their respective provincial health plans.
The cost of the pulmonary function testing is not covered by Alberta Health Card (AHC) under these few circumstances: