THE MONOFREQUENCY FORCED OSCILLATION TECH NIQUE - A NONINVASIVE PROCEDURE TO ASSESS RESPIRATORY IMPEDANCE OR OSCILLATORY RESISTANCE IN CALVES

The monofrequency forced oscillation technique (MFOT) has been found t o be a simple, reproducible, fast and accurate method to carry out lun g function testing in calves even under field conditions. If some tech nical as well as methodological requirements are taken into account, p ulmonary or respiratory resistance can be assessed by means of the par ameter oscillatory resistance (R(os). Furthermore, several R(os) deriv ed parameters are available for describing the functional status of th e central bronchial system. Due to the low variability caused by metho dological or intraindividual reasons, the MFOT represents a very quali fied method for intraindividual studies. Comparing measuring results o f different subjects, a higher biologically caused variance has to be taken into account.