Abstract
Purpose: To evaluate if the perimeter thoracic mobility (PTM) improvements could be identified by measuring its perimeter during pulmonary rehabilitation (PR), searching for its correlations with standards clinical and functional assessments.
Design: A case series.
Methods: Twenty patients underwent a PR and accessed the arterial blood gas analyses, FVC, FEV1, FEV/FEV1, 6-minute walk test (6MWT), and the PTM measurement assessed at the angle of the Louis level and the xiphoid process level.
Results: PR improved PTM on the angle of Louis (p=0.03) but not on the xiphoid process. These improvements are negatively correlated with improvements in PaCO2.
Conclusions: In COPD patients, a successful PR is accompanied by a reduction of the upper chest wall resting perimeter and by an improvement of the perimeter thoracic mobility.
Clinical relevance: The centimeter tape is a useful device able to identify PTM improvements in COPD patients.
License
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Article Type: Original Article
ELECTRON J GEN MED, Volume 19, Issue 3, June 2022, Article No: em361
https://doi.org/10.29333/ejgm/11671
Publication date: 02 Feb 2022
Article Views: 2451
Article Downloads: 2021
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