Pulmonary diffusing capacity to nitric oxide and carbon monoxide during exercise and in the supine position: a test-retest reliability study.

New Findings: What is the central question in this study? How reliable is the combined measurement of the pulmonary diffusing capacity to carbon monoxide and nitric oxide (D ) during exercise and in the resting supine position, respectively? What is the main finding and its importance? The D technique is reliable with a very low day-to-day variability both during exercise and in the resting supine position, and may thus provide a useful physiological outcome that reflects the alveolar-capillary reserve in humans.

Abstract: D , the combined single-breath measurement of the diffusing capacity to carbon monoxide (D ) and nitric oxide (D ) measured either during exercise or in the resting supine position may be a useful physiological measure of alveolar-capillary reserve. In the present study, we investigated the between-day test-retest reliability of D -based metrics.