Assessment of Pulmonary Function in Patients Undergoing Pulmonary Rehabilitation

Pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) is an evidence-based, multidisciplinary, and comprehensive intervention for patients with chronic respiratory diseases, which has high level of evidence in alleviating symptoms, optimizing functional status, and reducing health related costs by stabilizing disease manifestations. Individually tailored PR program based on the level of candidate’s functional level is essential, and to optimize the PR outcome, holistic evaluation of the candidate which not only includes physical function assessment but also covers psychosocial aspects including quality of life is required. A laboratory or spirometry-based pulmonary function test is the most basic assessment to be implemented in clinical practice before PR. However, additional evaluations and considerations customized to the baseline characteristics of patient’s underlying chronic respiratory disease must be made for more accurate patient identification and better PR outcomes. This review summarizes assessments and additional considerations related to pulmonary function in patients undergoing PR.