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Clinical Investigations: Pulmonary FunctionThe Effect of Body Fat Distribution on Pulmonary Function Tests
Section snippets
Materials and Methods
Forty-four healthy male firefighters were referred for fitness evaluations, none of which had any known medical problems. Both current and exsmokers were included in the group. Evaluation included spirometry, lung volumes, and body fat determination, and a fasting serum sample was obtained to evaluate triglycerides, cholesterol, and glucose levels. Our study was reviewed and approved by the Human Studies Committee of the University of Louisville (Kentucky) School of Medicine. Informed consent
Results
Demographic characteristics of the subjects and the results of spirometric and lung volume testing are shown in Table 1. Forty-four subjects underwent spirometric testing. Two firefighters who did not undergo hydrostatic weighing, also did not have lung volumes measured. Therefore, 42 subjects had lung volumes measured in addition to their spirometry. The two subjects who did not have lung volumes measured were excluded from this study. None of the subjects were severely obese (150% or greater
Discussion
To our knowledge this is the first study examining the effect of body fat distribution on pulmonary function tests in lean and mildly obese men. In this investigation, we found that a simple measure of body fat distribution, primarily the biceps skinfold, improved prediction of normal pulmonary measurements in nonobese adults compared with predictions based on general measurements.12,13 This extends the preliminary findings in morbidly obese patients, suggesting that body fat distribution may
Acknowledgments
This work was supported in part by the Allen & Hanburys division of Glaxo, Inc. The authors wish to thank Bryant Stamford, PhD, for his advice and assistance in the completion of this study.
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