earticle

영어

The cardiopulmonary disorder secondary to the complications in stroke patients is the most important factor in sustaining life. It results from the weakened respiratory muscles, the reduced lung capacity or volume, the oxygen delivery injury, and so on. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of chest mobilization exercise for respiratory gas exchange in chronic stroke patients. The subjects were eleven chronic stroke patients participating in regular exercise programme at silver rehabilitation clinic in Dong-tan health center. Three men and eight women were randomly assigned to either experimental or control group. Both groups participated in the conventional physical therapy, and only the experimental group was added in a chest mobilization exercise programme. This chest mobilization exercise programme was designed for pelvic control, thoracic extension, thoracic rotation, thoracic mobilization, pectoralis muscles stretching and chest expansion. Respiratory gas exchange was analyzed by MetaLyzerⅡ (peak VE, peak V'O2/kg, peak V'O2, peak V'CO2, peak RER, VO2 at AT, VO2 max, V'E/V'O2 at AT, V'E/V'CO2 at AT, VT at AT). It was measured before and after the chest mobilization exercise programme in the experimental group while being measured before and after rest 1 hour in the control group. The results showed a significant difference in peak VE, peak V'O2/kg, peak V'O2, peak V'CO2, VO2 at AT, VO2 max, V'E/V'O2 at AT and V'E/V'CO2 at AT between before and after the chest mobilization exercise programme in the experimental group (p<.05). These findings suggest that chest mobilization exercise programme effectively improves respiratory gas exchange in chronic stroke patients.