Coordination and coherence of respiratory muscles in chronic lung disease patients

People with chronic lung diseases must breathe with more force and with more breaths because their diseased lungs do not exchange oxygen as well. This occurs in interstitial lung disease, when the lungs are stiffer and in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, when the airways are obstructed due to phlegm and swelling. The breathing muscles in patients with these conditions are especially stressed and fatigued during illnesses requiring hospitalization. When leg muscles become fatigued, their loss of coordination decreases efficiency of force production and we can even trip and fall. Coordination has not been examined among the breathing muscles. We are examining this in healthy people by evaluating the timing their electrical activity using a technique called electromyography. We propose to examine the lack of coordination of the breathing muscles in hospitalized patients with chronic lung disease Because the heart’s electrical activity, EKG, contaminates the electromyography, we will develop a method to extract that artifact during the analysis. Examination of dyscoordination of the breathing muscles in hospitalized patients has the potential to open up another avenue of treatment to decrease breathlessness, improve physical activity and improve overall well-being.

Faculty Supervisor:

Darlene Reid

Student:

Partner:

Nagasaki University

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Health and Related Sciences & Technology; Technology; Biotechnology

University:

University of Toronto

Program: