Vital capacity is the maximum amount of air a person can expel from the lungs after a maximum inhalation. It is equal to the inspiratory reserve volume plus the tidal volume plus the expiratory reserve volume.
A person's vital capacity can be measured by a spirometer which can be a wet or regular spirometer. In combination with other physiological measurements, the vital capacity can help make a diagnosis of underlying lung disease.
A normal adult has a vital capacity between 3 and 5 litres. A human's vital capacity can be dependent on age, sex, height, weight and ethnicity.
Lung volumes and lung capacities refer to the volume of air associated with different phases of the respiratory cycle. Lung volumes are directly measured. Lung capacities are inferred from lung volumes.
Read more about Vital Capacity: Estimated Vital Capacities
Famous quotes containing the words vital and/or capacity:
“The demand for equal rights in every vocation of life is just and fair; but, after all, the most vital right is the right to love and be loved.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)
“People between twenty and forty are not sympathetic. The child has the capacity to do but it can’t know. It only knows when it is no longer able to do—after forty. Between twenty and forty the will of the child to do gets stronger, more dangerous, but it has not begun to learn to know yet. Since his capacity to do is forced into channels of evil through environment and pressures, man is strong before he is moral. The world’s anguish is caused by people between twenty and forty.”
—William Faulkner (1897–1962)