COMPARISON OF VITAL CAPACITY IN NORMAL AND POLIOMYELITIC SUBJECTS

¹ Departments of Physiology and Orthopaedic Surgery, State University of Iowa, Iowa City

1. No significant difference was found in the vital-capacity quotients of subjects in the sitting and in the standing position.

2. The loss of height that might be present in a scoliotic patient as the result of the lateral curvature of the spine does not produce enough change in the calculated body surface area of that patient to cause significant changes in the vital-capacity quotient.

3. Subjects with extensive respiratory-muscle paralysis and with a history of having been treated in respirators exhibited vital-capacity quotients significantly lower than those found in normal controls for their age and sex.

4. There was no significant difference in the vital-capacity quotients between normal and non-scoliotic, non-respiratory poliomyelitic male and female subjects.

5. There was no significant difference in the vital-capacity quotients between normal and poliomyelitic scoliotic subjects when the degree of deformity was slight or moderate. However, in severe scoliosis an appreciable reduction in vital-capacity quotients was observed.

6. Non-poliomyelitic scoliotic subjects with either thoracolumbar, primary lumbar, primary thoracic, or primary double curve patterns with angular deformities of less than 45 degrees were found to have vital-capacity quotients which were within normal limits. A significant reduction in vital capacity was found in subjects with the thoracic pattern when the angular deformity exceeded 45 degrees.

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