[en] Ventilatory steady state measurement with ¹³³Xe, using Ventil-Con (Radx) and a large area scintillation camera (Searle, LFOV) combined with a mini-computer system (Shimadzu, Scintipac 230) was employed to evaluate regional pulmonary function of 94 patients with chronic obstructive lung disease (COLD), fibrosis, carcinoma and other lung diseases. In the patients with COLD, mean washout times (anti t) were markedly prolonged in whole lung fields (anti m 130 +- 33 sec.) and ventilation indices (V*/V) (*: radical) and perfusion indices (Q*/V) (*: radical) were reduced in regional zones, especially in bilateral lower lung zones. For the patients with lung fibrosis, anti t values were short and the distribution of ventilation indices were uniform, and in contrast perfusion indices were reduced in the lower lung fields. In the area most affected by carcinoma, lung volumes (V) were reduced in parallel with the regional ventilation (V*) (*: radical) and perfusion (Q*) (*: radical). As the tumor approached the hilum, the relative ventilation and perfusion of cancerous side decreased remarkably in patients with obstructive findings on bronchoscopy. The mean washout times (anti t) for ¹³³Xe, calculated by a modified height over area method without background subtraction, were significantly longer than indicated by the data yielded by the least squares curve fitting of initial washout curve after background subtraction. Although the accuracy of these data was limited, it appeared that the prolonged anti t is a good parameter of regional ventilatory disturbance because significant correlations were found between the whole lung anti t in patients with lung diseases and their FEV 1.0% r = -0.66, RV/TLC r = 0.64, % TLC r = 0.43, PaCO₂ r = 0.41, PaO₂ r = -0.35. (author)