The aim of the present study was to calculate reference equations for carbon monoxide and nitric oxide transfer, measured in two distinct populations.The transfer factor of the lung for nitric oxide (TL,NO) and carbon monoxide (TL,CO) were measured in 303 people aged 18-94 yrs. Measurements were similarly made in two distant cities, using the single-breath technique. Capillary lung volume (Vc) and membrane conductance, the diffusing capacity of the membrane (Dm), for carbon monoxide (Dm,CO) were derived.The transfer of both gases appeared to depend upon age, height, sex and localisation. The rate of decrease in both transfers increased after the age of 59 yrs. TL,NO/alveolar volume (VA) and TL,CO/VA were only age-dependent. The mean TL,NO/TL,CO was 4.75 and the mean Dm/Vc was 6.17 min ; these parameters were independent of any covariate. Vc and Dm,CO calculations depend upon the choice of coefficients included in the Roughton-Forster equation. Values of 1.97 for Dm,NO/Dm,CO ratio and 12.86 min?kPa -1 for 1/red cell CO conductance are recommended.The scatter of transfer reference values in the literature, including the current study, is wide. The present results suggest that differences might be due to the populations themselves and not the methods alone.KEYWORDS: Ageing, capillary lung volume, carbon monoxide, diffusion, nitric oxide, pollution T he measurement of the transfer of gases through the lung is one of the few tests aimed at investigating alveolar function. The 1957 model and equation of ROUGHTON and FORSTER [1] permitted the transfer of carbon monoxide through the aveolocapillary structure to be split into two resistances, one for the alveolar membrane (1/membrane conductance, the diffusing capacity of the membrane (Dm), for carbon monoxide (Dm,CO)) and the other for the blood reacting with the gas (1/HCOVc), where HCO is the red cell conductance at a concentration, set by the pioneers of the method, of 14.9 g?dL -1 [2] and Vc the capillary lung volume:where TL,CO is the transfer factor of the lung for carbon monoxide. The first technique used to solve this equation with two unknowns, Dm and Vc, was to measure two transfers of CO, one under conditions of normoxia the other under hyperoxia. Breathing O 2 , by reducing HCO, lowers the TL,CO. GUENARD et al.[3] first published measurements of Dm and Vc using transfer factor of the lung for nitric oxide (TL,NO) and TL,CO and assuming HNO to be infinity, i.e. TL,NO5Dm,NO.The transfer of CO is dependant upon both Dm and Vc with HCO as a finite value.The relationship between Dm for nitric oxide (Dm,NO) and Dm,CO introduces a constant a: Dm,NO5aDm,CO. Therefore, the measurement of NO transfer alone permits the calculation of Dm,CO and, by introducing the latter into the CO transfer equation, of Vc.Most published reference values for Dm and Vc have been derived from the first two-step technique; one used the NO/CO method in a population of 127 healthy adults with a mean¡SD age of ,40¡12 yrs [4] and another focused on NO transfer in a population of 1...