• BJOG · Jan 2012

    Changes in pulmonary function during pregnancy: a longitudinal cohort study.

    • G Grindheim, K Toska, M-E Estensen, and L A Rosseland.
    • Department of Anaesthesiology, Division of Critical Care, Oslo University Hospital, Rikshospitalet, and Department of Physiology, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway. Guro.Grindheim@oslo-universitetssykehus.no
    • BJOG. 2012 Jan 1;119(1):94-101.

    ObjectiveTo record any physiological changes in lung function during healthy pregnancies, and evaluate the influence of parity, pregestational overweight, and excessive weight gain.DesignLongitudinal cohort study.SettingAntenatal clinic at Oslo University Hospital.PopulationOne hundred healthy white women with singleton pregnancies.MethodsThe women were studied with repeated measures of lung function using spirometry at a gestational age of 14-16, 22-24, 30-32, and 36 weeks, and at 6 months postpartum.Main Outcome MeasuresForced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1), and peak expiratory flow (PEF), also expressed as a percentage of predicted values according to age and height: i.e. FVC%, FEV1%, and PEF%.ResultsBoth FVC and FVC% increased significantly after 14-16 weeks of gestation (P=0.001), as was the case for both PEF and PEF% (P<0.001). FVC, FVC%, PEF, and PEF% in early and mid-pregnancy were significantly lower compared with the postpartum value (all P<0.05). Nulliparous women had an overall 4.4% lower value of FVC% than parous women (P=0.039). There were no differences in FVC, FEV1, or PEF dependent upon pregestational overweight or excessive weight gain.ConclusionsForced vital capacity (FVC) increases significantly after 14-16 weeks of gestation. The FVC% is significantly higher in parous compared with primigravida women, suggesting that the changes in FVC occurring during pregnancy persist postpartum. PEF increases significantly during healthy pregnancies, and should be interpreted cautiously in pregnant women with impaired lung function.© 2011 The Authors BJOG An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology © 2011 RCOG.

      Pubmed     Free full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…