Respiratory kinematics by optoelectronic plethysmography during exercise in men and women

Abstract

Gender differences in resting pulmonary function are attributable to the smaller lung volumes in women relative to men. We sought to investigate whether the pattern of response in operational lung volumes during exercise is different between men and women of similar fitness levels. Breath-by-breath volume changes of the entire chest wall ( V(.)( CW)) and its rib cage ( V(.)( Rc)) and abdominal ( V(.)( Ab)) compartments were studied by optoelectronic plethysmography in 15 healthy subjects (10 men) who underwent a symptom-limited ( W (peak)) incremental bicycle test. The pattern of change in end-inspiratory and end-expiratory V(.)( CW) ( V(.)( CW,EI) and V(.)( CW,EE), respectively) did not differ between the sexes. With increasing workload the decrease in V(.)( CW,EE) was almost entirely attributable to a reduction in end-expiratory V(.)( Ab), whereas the increase in V(.)( CW,EI) was due to the increase in end-inspiratory V(.)( Rc) in both sexes. In men, at W (peak) tidal volume [ V(.)( T), 2.7 (0.2) l] and inspiratory capacity [IC, 3.4 (0.2) l] were significantly greater than in women [1.8 (0.2) and 2.6 (0.2) l, respectively]. However, after controlling for lung size using forced vital capacity (FVC) as a surrogate, the differences between men and women were eliminated [ V(.)( T) /FVC 49 (3) and 45 (3) respectively, and IC/FVC 63 (2) and 65 (3) respectively]. All data are presented as mean (SE). In both men and women the contribution of the rib cage compartment to V(.)( T) expansion was significantly greater than that of the abdominal compartment. We conclude that gender differences in operational lung volumes in response to progressive exercise are principally attributable to differences related to lung size, whereas compartmental chest wall kinematics do not differ among sexes.

Effects of a multidisciplinary body weight reduction program on static and dynamic thoraco-abdominal volumes in obese adolescents

“…Immediately after the onset of exercise, end-inspiratory rib cage volume increases and end-expiratory abdominal volume decreases, indicating that inspiratory rib cage muscles and abdominal muscles are immediately recruited. This is in agreement with earlier studies of healthy lean subjects showing that inspiratory reserve volume is entirely located in the rib cage, whereas expiratory reserve volume is in the abdomen (Aliverti et al 2002;Vogiatzis et al 2005b;Wilkens et al 2010). However, in contrast to findings in healthy lean subjects, in our obese adolescents the rib cage hyperinflates.…”

“…It would therefore be interesting to extend the characterization of dynamic chest wall volume adaptation to incremental exercise to other obese populations, older individuals, and (or) females to verify whether thoraco-abdominal volume variations mirror the different lung patterns. Another limitation of our study is the lack of an age-matched, non-obese control group, even if the regulation of total and compartmental end-inspiratory and end-expiratory chest wall volumes in healthy, young, and lean subjects has already been described (Vogiatzis et al 2005b). …”

Volume Rather Than Flow Incentive Spirometry Is Effective in Improving Chest Wall Expansion and Abdominal Displacement Using Optoelectronic Plethysmography

“…[12][13][14] Our hypothesis is that the similar results between FIS and VIS observed in previous studies are the result of using an inaccurate instrument to evaluate thoracoabdominal mechanics and an inappropriate subject position. In the present study we compared the effect of VIS and FIS on thoracoabdominal mechanics and respiratory muscle activity evaluated by optoelectronic plethysmography in healthy volunteers in a seated position.…”

Compartmental chest wall volume changes during volitional hyperpnoea with constant tidal volume in healthy individuals

“…This should be kept in mind when comparing the present results with findings in the literature. For example, with increasing exercise intensity or CO 2 -induced hyperpnoea and concomitantly increasing ventilation, a progressive increase in end-inspiratory volumes of rib cage compartments and a decrease in the end-expiratory volume of the abdominal compartment is observed (Aliverti et al, 1997;Sanna et al, 1999;Duranti et al, 2004;Romagnoli et al, 2004;Vogiatzis et al, 2005). In the current study, these changes were present right from the start of hyperpnoea where ventilation was already required to be high.…”