• Laura Gochicoa-Rangel, Luis Torre-Bouscoulet, Antonio Salles Rojas, Carlos Guzmán-Valderrábano, Mónica Silva-Cerón, Rosaura E Benítez-Pérez, Isabel Salas-Escamilla, Wilmer Madrid-Mejía, and Juan M Grosso-Espinosa.
• Department of Respiratory Physiology, Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Respiratorias "Ismael Cosío Villegas", Mexico City, Mexico.
• Rev Invest Clin. 2020 May 7; 73 (4).

AbstractThe pandemic character of coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) requires strategy changes designed to guarantee the safety of patients and health-care professionals. We are greatly concerned by the limitations in the operation of pulmonary function test (PFT) laboratories, since there is a high risk of disease progression in patients with chronic pulmonary diseases, and we are now faced by the influx of a new group of individuals in the recovery phase of post-COVID-19-syndrome that requires evaluation and follow-up of their respiratory function. To reestablish the operation of PFT laboratories limiting the risk of cross-contamination, we herein present the consensus reached by a group of experts in respiratory physiology, most of whom work in PFT laboratories in several Latin American countries, on the applicable recommendations for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 pneumonia survivors when undergoing PFT. We present the safety and hygiene measures that must be adopted in laboratories or centers where PFT is conducted in adults and/or children. These recommendations answer the following questions: which PFT is most recommended in subjects that have recovered from COVID-19; what quality control and safety measures should PFT laboratories implement during this pandemic? And how should we approach non-COVID-19 patients requiring PFT?

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