Effects of Incentive Spirometry on Respiratory Motion in Healthy Subjects Using Cine Breathing Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Objective To investigate the effectiveness of incentive spirometry on respiratory motion in healthy subjects using cine breathing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Methods Ten non-smoking healthy subjects without any history of respiratory disease were studied. Subjects were asked to perform pulmonary training using incentive spirometry every day for two weeks. To assess the effectiveness of this training, pulmonary function tests and cine breathing MRI were performed before starting pulmonary training and two weeks after its completion. Results After training, there were significant improvements in vital capacity (VC) from 3.58 +/- 0.8 L to 3.74 +/- 0.8 L and in %VC from 107.4 +/- 10.8 to 112.1 +/- 8.2. Significant changes were observed in the right diaphragm motion, right chest wall motion, and left chest wall motion, which were increased from 55.7 +/- 9.6 mm to 63.4 +/- 10.2 mm, from 15.6 +/- 6.1 mm to 23.4 +/- 10.4 mm, and from 16.3 +/- 7.6 mm to 22.0 +/- 9.8 mm, respectively. Conclusion Two weeks of training using incentive spirometry provided improvements in pulmonary function and respiratory motion, which suggested that incentive spirometry may be a useful preoperative modality for improving pulmonary function during the perioperative period.