BACKGROUND Diaphragmatic breathing (DB) is widely used in pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), however it has been little studied in the scientific literature. The Pilates breathing (PB) method has also been used in the rehabilitation area and has been little studied in the scientific literature and in COPD. OBJECTIVES To compare ventila...

Pompe disease is an autosomal recessive disorder characterized by acid alpha-glucosidase (GAA) defi ciency that results in intralysosomal glycogen accumulation affecting skeletal muscles with more specifi c impairment of proximal limb, trunk, and respiratory muscles. Pulmonary symptoms may represent one of the initial manifestations of late-onset Pompe disease (LOPD) in patients, even those sti...

This study examines the effects of respiratory muscle feedback and breathing retraining (BRT) on lung function in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). Twenty-six patients with CF were matched for age and severity of disease. Standard respiratory spirometry was performed on all subjects before and after biofeedback training. Thirteen experimental subjects underwent eight sessions of pneumographic...

Serial recording in 45 low risk fetuses throughout the second and third trimesters showed that hiccups were the predominant diaphragmatic movement before 26 weeks' gestational age and that there was a significant negative correlation with gestational age. There was a pronounced reduction between 24 and 26 weeks, which was the result of a decrease in the number of episodes of hiccups rather than...

Question: Does breathing training improve respiratory symptoms, quality of life and objective markers of disease severity in adults with asthma? Design: Randomised controlled trial. Setting: Ten general practitioner (GP) practices in Leicester, UK. Participants: Adults treated for asthma in a GP practice with moderate impairment of asthma-related health status, defined as a score less than 5.5 ...

The inspiratory intercostal muscles elevate the ribs and thereby elicit a fall in pleural pressure (DeltaPpl) when they contract. In the present study, we initially tested the hypothesis that this DeltaPpl does, in turn, oppose the rib elevation. The cranial rib displacement (Xr) produced by selective activation of the parasternal intercostal muscle in the fourth interspace was measured in dogs...