A Prospective Comparison of Pulmonary Function Using Traditional and Kinematic Measures in Children With and Without Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis

Hank White; Juanita Wallace; Jason King; Sam Augsburger; Todd Milbrandt; Henry Iwinski

doi:10.1016/j.jspd.2015.04.002

A Prospective Comparison of Pulmonary Function Using Traditional and Kinematic Measures in Children With and Without Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis

Spine Deform. 2015 Nov;3(6):554-559. doi: 10.1016/j.jspd.2015.04.002. Epub 2015 Oct 28.

Authors

Hank White¹, Juanita Wallace², Jason King¹, Sam Augsburger¹, Todd Milbrandt³, Henry Iwinski⁴

Affiliations

¹ Shriners Hospitals for Children, 1900 Richmond Road, Lexington, KY 40505, USA.
² Shriners Hospitals for Children, 1900 Richmond Road, Lexington, KY 40505, USA. Electronic address: jwallace@shrinenet.org.
³ Shriners Hospitals for Children, 1900 Richmond Road, Lexington, KY 40505, USA; University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506, USA; Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905, USA.
⁴ Shriners Hospitals for Children, 1900 Richmond Road, Lexington, KY 40505, USA; University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506, USA.

PMID: 27927558
DOI: 10.1016/j.jspd.2015.04.002

Abstract

Purpose: Traditional pulmonary function testing can be difficult for both the subject and the test administrator and are dependent on the subject's effort and ability to follow directions. An alternative to traditional pulmonary function testing is the kinematic analysis of the chest wall. Kinematic analysis is a reliable and accurate method to evaluate pulmonary function testing that does not have the restrictions of traditional methods. It is the purpose of this study to present a new model for measuring chest motion during pulmonary function testing of children with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) and able-bodied children.

Procedures: Traditional pulmonary function testing and kinematic assessment of the chest wall was measured simultaneously during a flow volume loop and maximum voluntary ventilation test. Fifteen children with AIS and 15 able-bodied children were measured. Differences between the two groups (AIS and able-bodied) and the two testing methods (traditional and kinematic testing) were analyzed. Correlations for the two testing methods and interclass coefficients for the kinematic analysis were measured.

Findings: There were no significant differences between the control group and the scoliosis group when comparing data from traditional and kinematic assessments. When comparing the differences between the traditional and kinematic data collection methods, there were significant differences for the flow volume loop and maximum voluntary ventilation. For all significant parameters, the kinematic analysis demonstrated higher values. Moderate to high Pearson correlations were found between collection methods, and high to moderate interclass correlation coefficient values were found for the kinematic analysis of the chest wall.

Principal conclusions: Kinematics of the chest wall can be used as a valuable resource in the future when measuring pulmonary function when a traditional method is not a viable option.

Keywords: Chest; Kinematics; Pulmonary function; Scoliosis.