Compression of the lungs by the heart in supine, side-lying, semi-prone positions.
Kyoushi Mase, Tisa Noguchi, Miki Tagami and 6 others
PMID 27799672WHAT IT FOUND
In eight healthy people, the heart compressed the lung least in semi-prone positions and most in right side-lying.
The scan measured lung compression only, not breathing outcomes, and no patients were studied.
Key findings
01Right and left semi-prone positions had the lowest CVLH and HC ratio.
02CVLH was 90.9 ± 71.6 cm 3 in left semi-prone and 102.7 ± 34.4 cm 3 in right semi-prone, lower than 304.0 ± 66.4 cm 3 in supine.
03HC ratio was 12.2 ± 2.0% in right side-lying and 10.1 ± 2.6% in supine, and was higher in right side-lying than supine.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
Only eight healthy volunteers were studied, and none had pulmonary or cardiovascular disease. No patients were studied, so the findings cannot be applied directly to patients. The study measured lung compression on MRI, not ventilation or clinical outcomes. The measurements were made during a 30 s breath-hold at end-tidal expiratory lung volume, not during normal breathing. The analysis depended on manual tracing of heart and lung borders on MRI slices.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that semi-prone positioning improves ventilation or patient outcomes. The study measured lung compression in eight healthy volunteers only, and it did not test patients or breathing outcomes.