BACKGROUND Respiratory muscles are affected after cardiac surgeries. OBJECTIVE To verify whether the preoperative conditioning of the inspiratory muscles might help to decrease postoperative respiratory dysfunction. METHODS Thirty volunteers of both genders and with a minimum age of 50 years, while waiting for myocardial revascularization and/or cardiac valve surgery, were randomly assigned...

It is currently unknown whether sex differences exist in the cardiovascular consequences of the inspiratory muscle metaboreflex. We hypothesized that the activation of the inspiratory muscle metaboreflex will lead to less of an increase in mean arterial pressure (MAP) and limb vascular resistance (LVR) and less of a decrease in limb blood flow (Q̇L) in women compared with men. Twenty healthy men...

Reduced inspiratory muscle strength is common in people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and is associated with dyspnea and decreased exercise capacity. Most studies of inspiratory muscle training (IMT) in COPD have demonstrated increased inspiratory muscle strength. Many have also shown improvements in dyspnea and exercise capacity. However, a persisting challenge when transla...

Respiratory muscle dysfunction is associated with prolonged and difficult weaning from mechanical ventilation. This dysfunction in ventilator-dependent patients is multifactorial: there is evidence that inspiratory muscle weakness is partially explained by disuse atrophy secondary to ventilation, and positive end-expiratory pressure can further reduce muscle strength by negatively shifting the ...

Weaning from prolonged mechanical ventilation is a complex, time-consuming process that involves the loss of force/generating capacity of the inspiratory muscle. In their study 'Inspiratory muscle strength training improves the outcome in failure to wean patients: a randomized trial', Martin and colleagues showed that the use of an inspiratory muscle strength program increased the maximal inspi...

Respiratory muscle strength training (RMST) focuses on increasing the force-generating capacity of the inspiratory and expiratory muscles. The choice of respiratory muscles that are targeted using RMST depends on the outcome desired. For example, if an individual has reduced inspiratory muscle strength due to a neurogenic injury and is unable to ventilate the lungs, then inspiratory muscle stre...

Task failure during inspiratory resistive loading is thought to be accompanied by substantial peripheral fatigue of the inspiratory muscles. Six healthy subjects performed eight resistive breathing trials with loads of 35, 50, 75 and 90% of maximal inspiratory pressure (MIP) with and without supplemental oxygen. MIP measured before, after, and at every minute during the trial increased slightly...

BACKGROUND/AIMS This study examines the feasibility of a preoperative exercise program to improve the physical fitness of a patient before gastrointestinal surgery. METHODS An outpatient exercise program was developed to increase preoperative aerobic capacity, peripheral muscle endurance and respiratory muscle function in patients with pancreatic, liver, intestinal, gastric or esophageal canc...