The invention of the microprocessor and the development of personal computers ushered in an era of automated Pulmonary Function testing.
Godard Expirograph, 1970’s. Image from Mr. Kevin Hogben International
Sales and Product Specialist Manager for Medisoft
State of the art for 1979. Built around a Fleisch pneumotachograph and included an HP desktop computer (with 24K of memory and a tape drive!). It was capable of performing spirometry, DLCO and N2 washout tests. It was only manufactured for a couple of years and was discontinued likely because very few units were sold. It was quite expensive for the time (totally equipped it was $53,175 in 1979 dollars). From “Automated pulmonary function measurements” by Maurice R. Blais and John L. Fanton, Hewlett-Packard Journal, September 1979, page 20.
PFT History by Richard Johnston is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.