Força muscular periférica e respiratória na doença pulmonar obstrutiva crônica

Abstract

Introduction: The natural history of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease is associated with numerous systemic manifestations and comorbidities that complicate its evolution. Of these, dysfunction of the skeletal and respiratory muscles are characterized by a compromised functional capacity. Objective: To evaluate and compare respiratory and peripheral muscle strength in patients with COPD and healthy individuals. Methodology: This is a cross-sectional, analytical and observational study, in which 18 individuals were evaluated, nine of them with COPD and nine healthy. The femoral quadriceps neuromuscular performance (assessed by means of isokinetic dynamometry), hand grip strength (manual dynamometer) and maximum respiratory pressure (manovacuometry) were evaluated. The data were expressed by mean and standard deviation, analyzed in the statistical package SPSS 20.0. A significance level of 5% and a 95% confidence interval for all measures were considered. Results: Individuals with COPD had lower quadriceps femoral neuromuscular performance and lower respiratory pressures than healthy subjects; however, there was a statistically significant difference only for muscle power and MIP (p <0.05). Hand grip strength was higher in individuals with COPD (p <0.05). Conclusion: COPD subjects have neuromuscular changes in peripheral and respiratory muscles that may possibly cause reduced functional performance.