For anyone booked for spirometry at Caspian Healthcare.
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On the day
Do
- Wear loose clothes that do not squeeze the chest or stomach.
- Bring all your inhalers, your spacer and a list of your medicines.
- Keep well-fitting dentures in.
- Tell the staff if you have a cold, cough or fever.
Avoid
- Smoking or vaping for at least 1 hour before. Longer is better.
- Hard exercise for 1 hour before
- A heavy meal for 2 hours before
- Alcohol on the day of the test
Your inhalers
If the test is to find out what is wrong, the doctor may ask you to hold back some inhalers so that the result shows your lungs without medicine. Hold back only what your doctor has written above. If the test is to see how well your treatment is working, take everything as usual.
| Type of inhaler | Examples | Time the doctor may ask you to hold it back |
|---|---|---|
| Short-acting reliever | Salbutamol, levosalbutamol | 4 to 6 hours |
| Short-acting anticholinergic | Ipratropium | 12 hours |
| Long-acting, twice a day | Formoterol, salmeterol (alone or in a combination inhaler) | 24 hours |
| Long-acting, once a day | Indacaterol, vilanterol | 36 hours |
| Long-acting anticholinergic | Tiotropium, glycopyrronium, umeclidinium | 36 to 48 hours |
If you become breathless, use your reliever. Do not suffer for the sake of the test. Tell the technician what you took and when.
What happens
- Your height and weight are measured.
- You sit upright with a soft clip on your nose.
- You take the deepest breath you can, seal your lips around the mouthpiece, and blow out as hard and as long as you can.
- This is repeated at least 3 times to get a reliable result.
- Often you are then given a reliever inhaler, and the blows are repeated after about 15 minutes.
It is not painful. You may feel light-headed for a few moments after each blow. The whole test takes up to an hour.
Tell us before the test: it may need to be postponed if you have had
- A heart attack in the last week, or chest pain, or uncontrolled blood pressure
- Surgery on the eye, ear or sinus in the last week
- Surgery on the chest, stomach area or brain in the last 4 weeks
- A collapsed lung (pneumothorax)
- Blood in the sputum
- Tuberculosis, or any chest infection that could spread
- A known swelling (aneurysm) of a blood vessel in the brain
- A clot in the lung, heart failure or a heart rhythm problem that is not yet under control
- Fainting when you cough, or a recent head injury
- Late pregnancy
Questions about this sheet? Call Caspian Healthcare reception on +91 89193 41154. A doctor is on duty at all hours for problems that are not critical. Caspian has no emergency department: in an emergency call 108.
Where this comes from
- American Thoracic Society and European Respiratory Society: standardization of spirometry, 2019 update
- NHS: spirometry
- Asthma + Lung UK: spirometry
Prepared by Caspian Healthcare from the sources above. Last reviewed October 2026. General information: your own doctor's written instructions come first.