Borderline or mild copd

[Martinack59]

Hi I’m still slightly confused to whether I have copd even after talking to three different doctors 1 said I’m mild to borderline others say general age determination , my spirit tests came out at 91%in 1 second and fvc was 67% which I was told should be 70% for me I’m 58 stopped smoking the few cigarettes I did never been heavy but smoking a few is no good , I run I’m never out of breath but been told it won’t improve lung capacity any ideas on this please

[hypercat54]

Hi generally any lung function 90% or over is deemed as just a variation of the norm and you wouldn't be considered to have copd. However the results can vary by a few points on any given day so whilst one day you may have 91% on another it might be say 87%. In other words you keep slipping in and out of the copd range. This happened to me what I was first diagnosed and it really confused me too.

Once you have copd it is progressive so you can't improve any damage done to your lungs but you can exercise and teach your body to need less oxygen so you have more for breathing and be less breathless.

At your FEV1 you are going to live forever and most of us on here would kill for that level! I am usually around the mid 70's and have few problems except a bit of breathlessness walking especially up hills and I feel tired more. But then I am in my 60's now so some of it could be due to age. x

[Martinack59 in reply to hypercat54]

Thanks for reply I had a few typos in my post but I gather you got the gist , I was obviously worried about this but having borderline or mild with a decent FEV1 and not smoking or working in a dusty environment like I did before taking early retirement 4 years back I’m in a good position to keep on top of this , I go gym and treadmill even thinking of going back to doing another half marathon

[hypercat54 in reply to Martinack59]

Oh my goodness stop - you are making me feel exhausted! xx

[sinclair61 in reply to hypercat54]

Hi,

A small correction - COPD is not determined by your FEV1 but by your FEV /FVC ratio. You can have a FEV in the 100s and still have COPD if your ratio is below 0.7

Best

Sinclair

[Martinack59 in reply to sinclair61]

Not sure what the ratio is but FEV1 was 91% and fvc was 67% not sure what that works out at, so why do they do FEV1?

[Martinack59 in reply to sinclair61]

Could you explain how the ratio is calculated because it’s baffling me I’ve tried dividing the91by 67 and says the FEV1 should be lower the the fvc which was 67 then times by 100 im confused

[Toomuchinfo in reply to Martinack59]

It's not the percentages you devide but the value in the test I.e. litres of air. In your spirometry test there will be the amount of air you expelled and then the percentage value of what would be expected if you were healthy. So it would be fvc devided by fev1. Hope this helps

[Toomuchinfo in reply to Toomuchinfo]

If this value is less than 0.7 i.e. 70% then you have copd. the stage of copd is rated by fev1 alone I.e.

above 80% mild

59% to 79% moderate etc

[hypercat54 in reply to sinclair61]

I have always understood that the FEV1 figure is the most important and if that is below the guidelines then you have copd regardless of your other figures.

Perhaps our oracle stone-UK would kindly elucidate this for us? x