Sitting and supine esophageal pressures in overweight and obese subjects.

ABSTRACT: Esophageal pressure (P(Es)) can be used to approximate pleural pressure (P(pl)) and might be clinically useful, particularly in the obese e.g., to guide mechanical ventilator settings in critical illness. However, mediastinal artifact (the difference between true P(pl) and P(Es)) may limit acceptance of the measurement, and reproducibility of P(Es) measurements remains unknown. Therefore, we aimed to assess the effect of body posture on P(Es) in a cohort of obese, but healthy subjects, some of whom had multiple measurements, to address the clinical robustness of esophageal manometry. Twenty-five overweight and obese subjects (BMI > 25 kg/m(2)) and 11 control lean subjects (BMI < 25 kg/m(2)) underwent esophageal manometry with pressures measured seated and supine. Twenty overweight and obes

SUBMITTER: Owens RL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3443522 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature