Article

Respiratory rehabilitation reduces breathlessness from patient with
respiratory dysfunction. Chest expansion score, which represents the
circumference magnitude of the thoracic cage, is used for a target when treating
patients with respiratory disease. However, it is often difficult for patients to
understand the changes in the respiratory status and be motivated for therapy
continuously. We developed a new measurement system with biofeedback named BREATH
which shows chest expansion scores in real time.
The purpose of this study was to
determine the reliability and validity of the novel system in advance of clinical
application. METHODS: Three evaluators measured chest expansion in 33 healthy
individuals using tape measure, which is used for the measurement traditionally,
and BREATH. The wire for BREATH system was threaded over the thoracic
continuously and the data was recorded automatically; whereas the tape was winded
and measured each maximal expiration and inspiration timing by evaluator. All
participants were performed both measurement simultaneously for three times
during deep breath. In this study, we studied chest expansion score without using
biofeedback data of BREATH to check the validity of the result. To confirm intra-
and inter-evaluator reliability, we computed intra-class correlations (ICCs). We
used Pearson's correlation coefficient to evaluate the validity of measurement
result by BREATH with reference to the tape measure results. RESULTS: The average
(standard deviation) chest expansion scores for all, men and women by the tape
measure were 5.53 (1.88), 6.40 (1.69) and 5.22 (1.39) cm, respectively, and those
by BREATH were 3.89 (2.04), 4.36 (1.83) and 2.89 (1.66) cm, respectively. ICC
within and among the three evaluators for BREATH and the tape measure were
0.90-0.94 and 0.85-0.94 and 0.85 and 0.82, respectively.
The correlation
coefficient between the two methods was 0.76-0.87. CONCLUSION: The novel
measurement system, BREATH, has high intra- and inter-evaluator reliabilities and
validity; therefore it can lead us more effective respiratory exercise. Using its
biofeedback data, this system may help patients with respiratory disease to do
exercises more efficiently and clinicians to assess the respiratory exercise more
accurately.

Langue : ANGLAIS