Initial effect of an elastic chest band during inspiratory exercise on chest function improvement in people with limited rib mobility: a randomized controlled pilot trial.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: While performing respiratory training, an elastic chest band has great benefits for clinical use due to its safety and easy application. However, to our knowledge, there is no published data on the clinical use of an elastic chest band into inspiratory training for people with limited rib mobility. This study aimed to investigate the effects of an elastic chest band integrated into inspiratory exercise for people with decreased chest function.

METHOD: Sixteen subjects with limited rib mobility were randomly assigned to either experimental group (EG) or control group (CG), with eight subjects in each group. All subjects received an inspiratory exercise using incentive spirometer for 30 minutes. For the subjects of the EG, an elastic chest band was incorporated into the inspiratory exercises to provide compressive resistance to the chest. The chest function was measured using an electronic spirometer to determine the vital capacity (VC), tidal volume (TV), inspiratory reserve volume (IRV), expiratory reserve volume, forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume (FEV), FEV in 1-second (FEV₁) and the ratio of FEV₁ to FVC (FEV₁ %).

RESULTS: Significant differences were found for the VC, TV, IRV, FVC and FEV₁ between pre-test and post-test in the two groups (p < 0.05). Further, the changes in the values of VC (0.47 L vs. 0.22 L), FVC (0.55 L vs. 0.25 L) and FEV₁ (0.65% vs. 0.21%) in the EG subjects were significantly greater than those in the CG subjects (p < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that an elastic chest band combined with inspiratory exercise produces additional positive effect on improving chest function in people with limited rib mobility.