Don't let the name scare you, the Body Box is a good thing

KELLOGG — Now be honest… Have you ever heard of plethysmography?

That’s OK, neither had the News-Press until we recently visited Shoshone Medical Center’s Pulmonary Rehabilitation Center and got an up close look at its new plethysmograph.

A plethysmograph is an instrument for recording and measuring variation in the volume of a part of the body, especially as caused by changes in blood pressure.

Body plethysmography (pronounced like play-thays-mography) is a little different, as it is a pulmonary (lung-related) function test that determines how much air is in your lungs after you take in a deep breath. It also measures the amount of air left in your lungs after you exhale as much as you can.

SMC got its body plethysmograph machine, lovingly called the “body box,” in December 2019. The machine resembles a new-age iron lung, but is a welcome addition to SMC’s successful pulmonary rehabilitation program.

Respiratory therapist Keith Rector has been working with the machine since it arrived at the hospital and believes it to be an incredibly useful tool when working with pulmonary patients.

“The main reason for having this is that it measures your input and output, forced vital capacity (total amount of air exhaled), and all of those kinds of things,” Rector said. “This gives a better, more accurate measurement, that helps diagnose things like COPD and asthma.”

To use the machine, a patient first sits inside the rounded plexiglass walls. The door then slides shut, an airlock is engaged, and the pulmonary function test (PFT) begins.

“We’ve had a few patients who don’t like the idea of it at first, but we have them sit in it throughout the appointment before we actually close the door,” Rector said. “The body box has an emergency release button inside though if a patient gets overwhelmed.”

During a PFT, there are several tests that are completed including a spirometry, which measures flow through the airways, and diffusion capacity, which can tell the therapists how well oxygen and carbon dioxide travel from the lungs to the blood.

SMC began its pulmonary rehabilitation program in 2015, but in 2017 opened its Cardiac and Pulmonary Rehabilitation Center in the Kellogg-based hospital. From there, SMC has been steadily growing the program to allow more patients to have access to it, which in-turn allows patients to receive many important tests and treatments that they otherwise would have to drive to Coeur d’Alene or further to receive.

For more information, call Shoshone Medical Center at 208-784-4618.