Pelvic Floor Activity and Breathing in Women

Kitani, Lenore, PT

Status: Completed

Conditions: Pelvic Floor; Respiration

Treatments: Other: Moderate expiration effort; Other: Maximum expiration effort; Other: Minimum expiration effort

Study type: Observational

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT01694979

L12-020

Details and patient eligibility

About

The pelvic floor and diaphragm work together in many different functions. Two important functions are breathing and continence. The pelvic floor muscles have to lift and squeeze to maintain continence. Breathing, specifically breathing out, makes the pelvic floor lift. The investigators don't know how much the pelvic floor lifts and squeezes during different types of breathing out. The purpose of this study is to measure pelvic floor lift and squeeze during different types of breathing out.

Full description

The pelvic floor (PF) activates automatically, both squeezing and lifting, during times of increased intra-abdominal pressure for postural stability and continence. Expiration additionally produces automatic activation of the PF. No study to date has investigated the effects of forced expiration on PF displacement and squeeze pressure. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of variations in forced expiration effort on PF muscles' automatic activation.

Enrollment: 18 patients

Sex: Female

Ages: 18 to 35 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• women
• young (age 18-35)
• nulliparous
• pre-menopausal

Exclusion criteria

• pregnancy
• history of lower back or pelvic pain
• history of lower back or pelvic surgeries
• incontinence
• history of pelvic floor dysfunction
• diabetes
• endometriosis
• neuromuscular disease
• connective tissue disease

Trial design

18 participants in 1 patient group

Single group: pelvic floor and breathing

Description:

This is a single group with repeated measures during variable breathing effort

Treatment:

Other: Maximum expiration effort

Other: Moderate expiration effort

Other: Minimum expiration effort