Optoelectronic plethysmography derived breathing parameters can differ between athletes with and without a dysfunctional breathing pattern during exercise

Abstract

Dysfunctional breathing pattern (DBP) is a term that can be used to describe a collection of breathing disorders in which an individual displays chronic changes in breathing pattern. This can occur with or without another respiratory disorder/disease. Currently, there is no diagnostic method for DBP and it is diagnosed through the exclusion of other pathologies. Optoelectronic plethysmography (OEP) is a 3D motion capture technique which allows for a noninvasive method of measuring the movement of the chest wall, compartmentalizing the torso. The purpose of this study was to investigate if OEP could differ between athletes with and without a dysfunctional breathing pattern during exercise. Forty-seven athletes with a healthy breathing pattern (HBP) and twenty-six athletes with a suspected dysfunctional breathing pattern (DBP) performed an incremental cycle test to volitional exhaustion. Inspiratory time (tI), expiratory time (tE), the phase angle between the left and right side of the pulmonary ribcage (RCpHTA), between the pulmonary and abdominal ribcage (RCpRCaPhase), between the shoulders and the abdominal ribcage (RCaSPhase), and between the shoulders and the pulmonary ribcage (RCpSPhase) were calculated at rest and during high intensity exercise. It was found that each breathing parameters displayed no significant differences between the two groups at rest. However, during high intensity exercise these breathing patterns were found to be significantly different. The DBP group displayed significantly lower values for tI (HBP: 0.9 s, DBP: 0.8 s) and tE (HBP: 1.0 s, DBP: 0.8 s) and significantly higher values for each of the phase angles when compared to the healthy group, including RCpHTA (HBP: 0.0°, DBP: 0.2 °), RCpRCaPhase (HBP: −0.4 °, DBP: 0.5 °), RCaSPhase (HBP: −0.3 °, DBP: 0.5 °), and RCpSPhase (HBP: 0.2 °, DBP: 0.6 °). This indicates that individuals with a DBP took shorter breaths and had greater asynchrony within their breathing pattern during exercise but not at rest. This also demonstrates that OEP is sensitive enough to detect differences between these two group during high intensity exercise.