Chest wall volumes and breathing patterns of 13 male COPD patients were evaluated at rest and during inspiratory loaded breathing (ILB). The sternocleidomastoid (SMM) and abdominal muscle activity was also evaluated. The main compartment responsible for the tidal volume at rest and during ILB was the abdomen. During ILB patients exhibited, in addition to increases in the ratio of inspiratory ti...

Pericardial-diaphragmatic rupture is a rare condition which occurs after blunt trauma and involves the herniation of abdominal organs into the pericardium. A 77-year-old female patient presenting with complaints of palpitation and difficulty in breathing was admitted to the emergency room. Left lateral thoracotomy revealed the herniation of abdominal organs into the thorax. A pericardial-diaphr...

Compared with the pursed-lip breathing technique, acute application of portable noninvasive ventilation during recovery from intermittent exercise improved end-expiratory thoracoabdominal dynamic hyperinflation (DH) in 50% patients COPD (DH responders). DH responders, compared nonresponders, exhibited a reduction predominantly driven by abdominal compartment that effectively offset rib cage DH....

A spontaneous acute severe asthmatic attack was monitored non-invasively in a 27 year old sleeping female asthmatic subject. As the attack evolved there was a switch from predominant abdominal breathing (associated with inspiratory indrawing of the rib cage) to gradually increasing rib cage excursion (associated with inspiratory paradox of the abdominal wall with respect to the rib cage). Abdom...

[Purpose] The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of deep abdominal muscle strengthening exercises on respiratory function and lumbar stability. [Subjects] From among 120 male and female students, 22 whose thoraxes opened no more than 5 cm during inspiration and expiration and whose forced expiratory flow rates were around 300 m/L were recruited. The subjects were randomly divided ...

BACKGROUND High-flow nasal cannula (HFNC) creates positive oropharyngeal airway pressure and improves oxygenation. It remains unclear, however, whether HFNC improves thoraco-abdominal synchrony in patients with mild to moderate respiratory failure. Using respiratory inductive plethysmography, we investigated the effects of HFNC on thoraco-abdominal synchrony. METHODS We studied 40 adult subje...

BACKGROUND Physical assessment of breathing is an important component of physical therapy evaluations. However, there are no standardized reference values of breathing movements available for use in clinical practice. The purpose of this study was to determine the 3-dimensional distances of observational points on the thorax and abdomen during breathing in healthy subjects and to assess the ef...

BACKGROUND The mechanisms underlying breathing exercises have not been fully elucidated. OBJECTIVES To evaluate the impact of four on breathing exercises (diaphragmatic breathing, inspiratory sighs, sustained maximal inspiration and intercostal exercise) the on breathing pattern and thoracoabdominal motion in healthy subjects. METHOD Fifteen subjects of both sexes, aged 23 ± 1.5 years old a...

BACKGROUND Diffusion-weighted MRI (DWI) is helpful for detection of brain abscess and pelvic abscess in adults. In the present study, we evaluated the diagnostic performance of DWI in children and young adults with abdominal and soft tissue abscess formations. METHODS Seventeen patients (11 females, aged 13 ± 6 years) with suspected abdominal or soft-tissue abscess underwent routine MRI inclu...

Blood in the splanchnic vasculature can be transferred to the extremities. We quantified such blood shifts in normal subjects by measuring trunk volume by optoelectronic plethysmography, simultaneously with changes in body volume by whole body plethysmography during contractions of the diaphragm and abdominal muscles. Trunk volume changes with blood shifts, but body volume does not so that the ...