EXTERNAL RESPIRATION IN PATIENTS WHO HAVE DORSOPATHY IN THE CONTEXT OF OVERWEIGHT AND OBESITY AND USE THORACOLUMBAR BODY JACKETS
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Abstract
Objective – to study how the thoracolumbar body jacket Second Spine influences external respiration in patients with overweight and obesity.
Material and methods. We examined 73 patients with dorsopathy including 35 (47.9%) men and 38 (52.1%) women whose median age was 60 (51-72) years. External respiration (ER) was studied in the sitting position using the spirometer SMP-21/01; it was studied twice, without the jacket and with the jacket on.
Results. Positioning of patients with dorsopathies in the jacket Second Spine was accompanied with statistically insignificant bidirectional changes in vital capacity (VC) which did not depend on the body mass index (BMI). Patients with negative changes in VC showed an increase in the Tiffeneau index (in some patients it exceeded the normal range, which can be interpreted as a development/aggravation of restrictive disorders one of whose causes can be abdominal obesity). This hypothesis was supported by the inverse correlation between BMI and the change in VC found in patients with negative changes in this parameter (ρ = -0.34, p < 0.05).
The analysis of the results in obese patients did not demonstrate any significant changes in ER while positioned in jackets, but we found that persons with abdominal obesity, unlike those with other types of obesity, had a lower relative VC both at rest and while using jackets which had a negative correlation with the waist circumference (ρ = -0.821, p < 0.023 without the jacket; ρ = -0.893, p < 0.007 with the jacket on) and the sagittal abdominal diameter (ρ = -0.857, p < 0.014; ρ = -0.893, p < 0.007, respectively). Patients with other types of obesity showed a direct correlation between BMI and the Tiffeneau index when their ER was studied while positioned in jackets (ρ = 0.514, p < 0.02).
Conclusion. The influence of the thoracolumbar body jacket on ER is dual and does not depend directly on BMI. There are no convincing data on the possibility of restrictive disorders developing in obese persons when using thoracolumbar body jackets; however, lower relative VC in those with abdominal obesity and the correlations found by us suggest that it is appropriate to perform anthropometric screening and a spirometry test for patients with dorsopathy while in jackets in order to individualize the fixation mode.
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