Effects of Breast Cancer and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus on Pulmonary Volumes and Pressures in Adult Women

Abstract

Background and Objective: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM2) and breast cancer (BC) are diseases of high prevalence worldwide. Both alter lung function separately. So suffering both tables would increase this decrease in lung function. The objetive was to determine the effects of DM2 and BC on ventilation volumes and pressures in adult women. Material and Methods: Forty-two women patients were recruited, of whom 40 were accepted under the exclusion criteria. They were divided into four groups: control group (CG), DM2, BC and DM2+BC. Body plethysmography was used to measure forced vital capacity, lung volumes, airway resistance and muscle pressures. Finally the normality of the data was determined using Student's t test or the Mann-Whitney U test; the threshold of significance was p<0.05. Results: No significant differences were observed in the anthropometric variables between the control group and the other groups. The ventilation flows showed no significant differences, while the lung volumes presented significant differences in the inspiratory capacity (IC) variables (p<0,002). Maximum inspiratory and expiratory pressures (MIP-MEP) also presented significant diminution (p<0,001; p<0,041, respectively). Conclusions: From the results obtained we can conclude that the combination of type 2 diabetes mellitus with breast cancer caused a diminution in ventilation volumes and pressures, specifically in IC, MIP and MEP.