Respiratory muscle strength in children and adolescents with asthma: similar to that of healthy subjects?
OBJECTIVE
To compare children/adolescents with mild or moderate asthma and healthy subjects in terms of respiratory muscle strength, correlating it with spirometric variables in the former group.


METHODS
This was a cross-sectional study involving individuals 6-16 years of age and clinically diagnosed with mild/moderate asthma, together with a group of healthy, age- and gender-matched subjects. We determined spirometric values, as well as MIP and MEP, and we selected three reproducible measurements (variation < 10%).


RESULTS
We evaluated 75 patients with asthma and 90 controls. The mean age was 10.0 ± 2.6 years. There were no statistically significant differences between the controls and the asthma group regarding MIP (-89.7 ± 26.7 cmH2O vs. -92.2 ± 26.3 cmH2O; p = 0.541) or MEP (79.2 ± 22.9 cmH2O vs. 86.4 ± 24.0 cmH2O; p = 0.256). The groups were subdivided by age (children and adolescents: 6-12 and 13-16 years of age, respectively). Within the asthma group, there was a significant difference between the child and adolescent subgroups in terms of MEP (74.1 ± 24.1 cmH2O vs. 92.1 ± 21.9 cmH2O; p < 0.001) but not MIP (p = 0.285). Within the control group, there were significant differences between the child and adolescent subgroups in terms of MIP (-79.1 ± 17.7 cmH2O vs. -100.9 ± 28.1 cmH2O; p < 0.001) and MEP (73.9 ± 18.7 cmH2O vs. 90.9 ± 28.1cmH2O; p < 0.001). In the asthma group, spirometric variables did not correlate with MIP or MEP.


CONCLUSIONS
In our sample, asthma was found to have no significant effect on respiratory muscle strength.
Universidade Estadual de Ciências da Saúde de Alagoas, Maceió, AL, Brazil.
Cilmery Marly Gabriel de
CM
Oliveira
Fernanda de Cordoba
Fde C
Lanza
Dirceu
D
Solé
D000293:Adolescent; D001249:Asthma / Q000145:classification / Q000503:physiopathology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D053580:Muscle Strength / Q000502:physiology*; D012132:Respiratory Muscles / Q000502:physiology*; D013147:Spirometry