Viji Devanand¹,
Lovie Beneta T²,
Buvana Arivazhaghan³,
¹Professor & Head,
Department of Physiology,
²Associate Professor of Physiology,
³Post Graduate,
Department of Physiology,
Stanley Medical College,
Chennai,
Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract

• Background: Assessment of the strength of the skeletal muscles in the upper limbs can be done by endurance and resistance exercises. The exercise testing of muscular endurance of the upper limbs is a surrogate test for the efficiency of respiratory muscles. Muscular effort is inevitable for chest wall compliance and normal pulmonary function and good exercise capacity. Hence in this study the muscular endurance of the upper limbs assessed by Upper limb cycle ergometry is correlated with the FEV1 and FVC measured by spirometry.
• Aim: To measure and correlate FEV1 and FVC with the muscular endurance of the upper limbs in healthy adults.
• Materials and Methods: An analytical cross sectional study was conducted among 54 healthy adults.
  Spirometry was done for 27 male and 27 female study participants and the percentage predicted values of FVC and FEV1 were obtained. The muscular endurance of the upper limbs was assessed by the exercise duration in upper limb cycle ergometry. The data was analyzed using SPSS software and the Karl Pearson correlation was used to find out the correlation between spirometric indices and exercise duration.
• Results: The correlation of Percentage predicted FEV1 and the exercise duration in the study participants was found to be high positive and statistically significant. (r= 0.963 p< 0.01) in females and (r=0.986 p<0.01) in male participants. The correlation of Percentage predicted FVC and exercise duration in the study participants was found to be high positive and statistically significant in males (r=0.865 p< 0.01) and low positive and statistically significant in females (r = 0.391 p =0.043).
• Conclusion: The correlation of the muscular endurance of the upper limbs and FEV1 was found to be very high positive and statistically significant, suggesting that endurance training of the upper limbs in sedentary adults may improve their lung function and functional exercise capacity.

Keywords: exercise, forced expiratory volume, upper limb endurance training