Step I Forced vital capacity

[Northerncardinal]

what is forced vital capacity and how is it different from Vital capacity? someone please clarify.

thanks!

 

[Rac65]

They're the same thing. (nomenclature differs in texts based on whether you're just talking about it as an isolated entity versus in the context of PFTs)

 

[IMG217]

Apparently they are slightly different:
http://bmcpulmmed.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2466-14-16
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9669830

But I think/hope this is beyond the scope of USMLE.

 

[Oh_Gee]

bump, any more insight on the difference. i googled around but am still confused