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How Respiratory Muscle Training Affects Breathing in Individuals with Spinal Cord Injury
Author(s) -
Aslan Sinan,
Brown Eddie,
Chopra Manpreet,
Legg Bonnie,
Singh Goutam,
Aslan Sevda,
Ovechkin Alexander
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.29.1_supplement.659.4
Subject(s) - medicine , muscles of respiration , vital capacity , spirometry , spinal cord injury , lung volumes , expiration , pulmonary function testing , respiratory system , anesthesia , physical medicine and rehabilitation , physical therapy , cardiology , spinal cord , lung , diffusing capacity , lung function , psychiatry , asthma
There are an estimated 10,000 to 12,000 spinal cord injuries (SCI) every year in the United States. Besides motor and sensory functional deficits, respiratory insufficiency is also common in individuals with SCI due to paralysis, muscle weakness and/or spastic contractions of the muscles involved in respiration. Pulmonary diseases such as pneumonia and restrictive lung disease are the number one reason for death in individuals with SCI. The aim of the study was to see how respiratory muscle training (RMT) affected the pulmonary function measured with spirometry tests. The outcomes were the forced vital capacity (FVC) and forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) and surface electromyography (sEMG). The results showed that both the FVC and FEV1 improved significantly after RMT. Individuals with SCI showed significantly lower sEMG activities recorded from intercostal, diaphragm, rectus abdominis and oblique during expiratory part of spirometry test. The training increased sEMG activity during both inspiration and expiration parts of the test, and this improvement was higher in thoracic SCI compared to cervical SCI.