Relationship of Forced Vital Capacity (FVC), Forced Expiratory Volume in First Second (FEV<sub>1</sub>)and FEV<sub>1</sub>/FVC% with Plasma Progesterone Level during Different Phases of Normal Menstrual Cycle

Abstract

The present study was carried out to observe the correlation of some lung function parameters with the endogenous plasma progesterone level during different phases of menstrual cycle. The study was conducted on 30 healthy young female volunteers with age range of 20-25 years in the department of Physiology of BSMMU, Dhaka, during July 2005- June 2006. All the subjects were studied in 3 phases of menstrual cycle for 2 consecutive cycles. FVC, FEV1 , FEV1/FVC% for assessing lung function and plasma Progesterone level during each phase of menstrual cycle were measured by a portable spirometer and by ELIZA method in auto analyzer respectively. Comparison of the values between different phases were done by paired ‘t' test considering menstrual phase data as baseline due to negligible amount of progesterone detected in this phase. Correlation of FVC , FEV1 and FEV1/FVC%with Progesterone level in each 3 phases were analyzed by Pearson's correlation- coefficient test. Plasma progesterone level was much higher during luteal phase compared to those of follicular phases of both cycles (24.54ng/ml vs1.41 ng/ml; 26.56 ng/ml vs. 1.48 ng/ml). Both FVC and FEV1 were significantly higher (p<0.001) during luteal phase than those of follicular phases in both the cycles. FVC, FEV1 and FEV1/FVC%were positively correlated with plasma progesterone level but these relationships had failed to show any statistical significance. Similar to others, this study also observed increased ventilation and high endogenous progesterone level during luteal phase. Therefore increased ventilation might be related to high progesterone level during luteal phase owing to increased inspiratory muscle endurance and bronchial relaxation effect. Key words: Plasma Progesterone; Forced Vital Capacity; Forced Expiratory Volume; Menstrual cycle. DOI:10.3329/jbsp.v2i0.976 J Bangladesh Soc Physiol. 2007 Dec;(2): 7-12.