CPFT Practice Test

Skills this practice test covers

• Calibrate a spirometer with a calibration syringe and act on a failed check.
• Run quality control on blood gas analyzers, including proficiency testing.
• Select a protocol for spirometry, static lung volume or DLCO testing.
• Carry out airway responsiveness tests, from bronchodilator studies to methacholine challenges.
• Check a test's acceptability and repeatability before the result is reported.
• Read ECG rhythms and blood pressure during a monitored exercise test.

3 domains · 10 topics · 115 questions

Requirements

• Candidates must be at least 18 and meet one of the NBRC's admission routes.
• Route A: at least an associate degree from a respiratory therapy program that CoARC accredits or supports.
• Route B: holding the NBRC's Certified Respiratory Therapist (CRT) or Registered Respiratory Therapist (RRT) credential.
• Route C: college study worth 62 semester hours from an accredited school, with courses in biology and mathematics.

About the CPFT exam

How to earn the certification

Earns

Certified Pulmonary Function Technologist (CPFT)Specialty (entry-level pulmonary function technologist)

The CPFT is awarded for a five-year term under the NBRC's Credential Maintenance Program.

How to prepare for CPFT

1. 1

   Map the outline to lab work

   The NBRC's Detailed Content Outline lists every task by domain, and the same tests recur in each section. Mark the tests not yet performed by hand, such as EVH or respiratory muscle strength, and plan time with them.

2. 2

   Rehearse daily quality control

   Practise calibration syringe checks, gas analyzer calibration and biological quality control until a failed check can be traced to its cause. The Instrumentation / Equipment domain rests on this routine.

3. 3

   Spend longest on procedures

   Procedures is the largest domain. For each test, from spirometry to DLCO and bronchial provocation, learn the protocol, the patient instructions and the signs that a result is not valid.

4. 4

   Work the calculations by hand

   Calculate results, choose reference ranges and check reliability for blood gases, lung volumes and DLCO. Study Mode lets each Data Management question be read slowly, with its explanation.

5. 5

   Take a timed full run

   Take the CPFT practice test in Timed Mode, then the NBRC's free PFT practice exam. Ask Brainy AI Assistant about every missed validity question, such as which acceptability check a test failed.

   Start a timed CPFTrun

The NBRC offers a free PFT practice exam and official Self-Assessment Examinations, and it publishes the Detailed Content Outline the exam follows.

Who CPFT is for

• Respiratory therapists with the CRT or RRT who perform lung function and blood gas tests.
• Recent graduates of CoARC-accredited respiratory therapy programs who join a diagnostics lab.
• Lab technicians who qualify through college credit in biology and mathematics.
• Technologists who plan to reach the RPFT level on a later sitting.

Typical job titles: Pulmonary function technologist · Respiratory therapist · Cardiopulmonary technologist · Pulmonary lab technician

CPFT glossary

18 terms from the exam objectives and the vendor's official material, each defined in a sentence.

6MWT

The six-minute walk test: the distance a patient walks in six minutes, often with pulse oximetry monitoring.

Body habitus

A patient's body size and build, measured with tools such as a stadiometer and used to predict normal values.

Body plethysmography

Measuring lung volumes and airway resistance while the patient sits in a sealed box, from pressure changes during breathing.

Bronchial provocation studies

Tests that give a trigger, such as methacholine, mannitol or exercise, to see whether the airways narrow too easily.

Bronchodilation studies

Spirometry before and after a bronchodilator drug, to see whether airflow improves.

Calibration syringes

Syringes of a known volume used to check that a spirometer or flow sensor measures volume correctly.

CO-oximetry

Blood analysis that measures the forms of hemoglobin, such as oxyhemoglobin and carboxyhemoglobin, by how they absorb light.

Credential Maintenance Program

The NBRC program that keeps a credential active over its five-year term, through assessments and continuing education or a new exam.

DLCO

The diffusing capacity of the lung for carbon monoxide: a measure of how well gas passes from the lungs into the blood.

EVH

Eucapnic voluntary hyperpnea: a provocation test in which the patient breathes fast on a gas mix that keeps carbon dioxide normal.

Gas dilution methods

Ways to measure lung volumes from how a gas mixes in the lungs, as in helium dilution or nitrogen washout.

Isothermal lung analog

A quality control device that acts as a lung of known volume, used to check a body plethysmograph.

Low cut score

The lower of the exam's two cut scores; a candidate who reaches it earns the CPFT credential.

Pulse oximetry

A noninvasive estimate of blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) from a sensor on a finger or ear.

Respiratory muscle strength

Tests such as MIP, MEP and cough peak flow that measure how hard the breathing muscles can pull and push.

Serial pulmonary function testing

Repeating tests on one patient over time to follow a trend, such as a decline or a response to treatment.

Spirometry

A test that measures how much air a person can breathe out, and how fast, after a full breath in.

Static lung volumes

Lung volumes that do not depend on airflow, such as total lung capacity and residual volume.