Diaphragmatic mobility improves after pulmonary rehabilitation. A study using M-mode ultrasonography

The diaphragm changes in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).Muscle fiber shortening follows lung hyperinflation, resulting in a chronic mechanical disadvantage impairing the diaphragmatic mobility (DM), which worsens in exacerbations. Goals: to verify DM improvement after an inpatient pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) and to correlate DM to COPD severity. Methods: M-mode ultrasonography (MmUS) assessed the DM at rest breathing (RB) and slow deep inspiration (SDI) on 52 inpatients and 15 healthy controls (HC). Lung function test, arterial blood gas analysis and 6-minute walk test were also performed before and after PR. Results: thirty COPD patients ended the PR (31±8 days). After PR, Inspiratory Capacity improved from 1.58 L ±0.5 L to 1.7 L ±0.6 L (p Conclusions: After PR, DM at SDI was significantly improved in COPD patients. The DM measured on SDI was correlated with COPD severity. Lastly, the DM at RB was higher in COPD patients when compared with HC.