Effects of increased functional residual capacity on finger-floor distance in healthy young adults.
Yoshiki Takeuchi, Hirotaka Kato, Masahiro Ishizaka and 1 others
PMID 30774201WHAT IT FOUND
Forcing extra air into the lungs significantly reduced trunk flexibility.
Finger-to-floor distance decreased as inhaled volume rose, showing that increased lung volume mechanically limits forward bending range of motion in healthy adults.
Key findings
01Finger-to-floor distance significantly decreased as forced inspiration volume increased from 1,000 ml to 2,000 ml.
02Spinal curvature angles in the sagittal plane showed no significant change despite increased lung volume.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
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
Different groups of participants were used for each sub-study, so individual responses across measures were not tracked. The spinal curvature analysis included only male participants. Actual lung function measures like inspiratory capacity and total lung capacity were not recorded using spirometry. The study was conducted on healthy young adults, so the mechanical effects on patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are inferred, not directly measured.
Declared interests
The authors report no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume these findings apply directly to patients with COPD. The study used healthy young adults with artificially increased lung volume, and the authors note that spinal alignment changes may differ in patients with chronically progressive lung disease.