Breathlessness and transfer factor for the lung in chronic obstructive lung disease.

The breath-holding CO transfer factor and transfer coefficient were correlated with the severity of dyspnea in 37 patients with moderate or severe obstructive lung disease FEV 1.0 less than 1.5 1) No correlation was evident when the whole group was considered. When the patients were subdivided into "bronchitics", "intermediate" and "emphysematous" a correlation between dyspnea severity and gas transfer appeared for the latter subgroup; this correlation was statistically significant for the transfer coefficient.