Abstract
To examine whether the extent of respiratory disorder is related to the severity of cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM), we investigated respiratory functions: forced vital capacity for 1 second; FEV1%, % vital capacity (%VC) in patients with CSM and lumbar spinal canal stenosis (LSS).
In the CSM group (n=30), there were 19 men and 11 women. In the LSS group (n=32), there were 14 men and 18 women. In the CSM and LSS groups, the average ages were 66.7 and 64.8, the average heights were 159.4 and 156.2, and the average body weights were 54.9 and 58.1, respectively. There were no significant differences in age, height and body weight in these groups. The FEV1% in CSM and LSS groups were 80.2%, 84.6%, and %VC in these groups were 87.9%, 100.2%, respectively.
In the CSM group, the JOA spinal score decreased as the %VC decreased (correlation r=0.361). These findings indicate that %VC appears to correlate with the severity of CSM.
