Pelvic Floor Activity and Breathing in Women

Completed

• Conditions: Pelvic Floor; Respiration
• Interventions: Other: Minimum expiration effort; Other: Moderate expiration effort; Other: Maximum expiration effort

• Registration Number: NCT01694979
• Lead Sponsor: Kitani, Lenore, PT

Brief Summary

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.

Detailed 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.

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2012-02
• Primary Completion: 2012-02
• Study Completion: 2012-02
• Status Verified: 2012-09
• Study First Submitted: 2012-09-24
• Study First Submitted QC: 2012-09-26
• Last Update Submitted: 2012-09-26
• Study First Posted: 2012-09-27
• Last Update Posted: 2012-09-27

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: Female
• Target Recruitment: 18

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

Study & Design

• Study Type: OBSERVATIONAL
• Study Design: Not specified

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Single group: pelvic floor and breathing	Minimum expiration effort	This is a single group with repeated measures during variable breathing effort
Single group: pelvic floor and breathing	Moderate expiration effort	This is a single group with repeated measures during variable breathing effort
Single group: pelvic floor and breathing	Maximum expiration effort	This is a single group with repeated measures during variable breathing effort

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Clinical Musculoskeletal Research Laboratory; 🇺🇸 Lubbock, Texas, United States