Peak expiratory flow rate (PEF) was measured on 175 healthy Indian girls in the age range 8-18 years with the help of Wright's Peak Flow Meter. PEF was recorded in the post absorptive phase at least 1 h after breakfast. The subjects rested for 0.5 h before the test procedure and tests were carried out between 1000-11000 hrs to avoid diurnal changes. The highest of three recordings was noted as the subject's PEF. PEF, age, height and body weight were correlated with each other and an intercorrelation matrix between these variables has been designed. It was observed, after performing multivariate regression analysis, that age and height are significant predictors of PEF. A multiple linear regression equation and a nomogram have been constructed for predicting PEF from age and height in young healthy Indian girls.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Presidential address.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Education, Medical, Undergraduate↗

PubMedDate not supplied

A multivariate study of some lung function tests at different age groups in healthy Indian males.

Considerable attempts have been made to study the changes in lung function in man in different age groups using univariate statistical techniques in which the lung function tests were assumed to be independent of each other. Actually the lung function tests are well correlated with each other and, thus, the inferences drawn on the basis of univariate statistical analysis may be misleading due to the violation of the assumption of independence. On the other hand, simultaneous changes in lung function in man in different age groups cannot be tested using univariate statistical techniques. Keeping in view such shortcomings of the univariate statistical techniques, an attempt has been made in the present investigation to study simultaneous changes in some lung function tests [viz. vital capacity (VC), forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume for one second (FEV1), expiratory reserve volume (ERV), inspiratory capacity (IC) and maximum voluntary ventilation (MVV)] at different age groups (viz. 21-25, 26-30, 31-35, 36-40, 41-45, 46-50, 51-55, 56-60 and 61-70 years) in healthy Indian males using multivariate statistical techniques (viz. Wilks' statistic (A) and Mahalanobis' D2 statistic) for drawing valid statistical inferences. It is concluded that remarkable significant changes take place in lung function after the age of forty years.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Lognormal distribution in physical work capacity in young healthy males.

This paper evaluates the statistical distribution of physical work capacity (Vo2 max) in young healthy males. For this purpose, the normally of Vo2 max data, collected on two random samples consisting of 123 and 120 young healthy male volunteers was tested. It is concluded that physical work capacity follows lognormal distribution and the quality of fit has been found to be good as tested by chi2 test.

Disability Evaluation↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Endurance capacity for continuous effort in terms of aerobic and anaerobic fraction of oxygen supply.

Studies have been conducted on 13 young healthy adults of average fitness on endurance work of varying durations lasting for 2-31 minutes using bicycle ergometer. Aerobic-anaerobic fractions of oxygen supply during each effort was determined. The data from Astrand and Rodahl on aerobic O2--supply and duration in maximal efforts from 1-120 minutes on a highly trained subject have also been considered. The plot of log endurance time against log (aerobic/anaerobic ratio) exhibits a slight departure from linearity, indicating independent contributions from aerobic and anaerobic fractions of oxygen supply. An equation was derived of the form: T - Au1k1u2--k2 where u1 end u2 are the aerobic and anaerobic fractions respectively which has been found to yield highly significant correlation coefficient between log-estimated and log-observed endurance time (0.9996 for Astrand and Rodahl's data on a single subject and 0.9640 for the present data on 13 subjects). This index is, therefore, quite suitable for the assessment of endurance capacity in terms of a single physiological parameter, and is likely to be superior to indices in current use.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Operations research for improved delivery of health services on the Indian Railways.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Delivery of Health Care↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Prediction of some ventilatory 'norms' in healthy Indian males 21-69 years age.

This paper presents regression equations for predicting some ventilatory 'norms' (viz. vital capacity, forced vital capacity, forced expiratory volume for one second, expiratory reserve volume, inspiratory capacity and maximum voluntary ventilation) from physical characteristics of healthy Indian males. These equations have been constructed on the basis of multivariate regression analysis of the data of ventilatory 'norms' and physical characteristics collected on 171 healthy Indian males of age ranging from 21-69 years. Applications of these regression equations will be of practiced importance to biomedical scientists interested in the indirect assessment of ventilatory 'norms for a wider age range (21-69 years) which has not been covered by earlier studies carried out in this direction.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Fitting curves to physiological data.

This paper deals with fitting of a parabola and three parameter logistic curve to relate heart output and initial index finger temperature with ambient temperature in human subjects. The coefficients of determination (R2%) between observed and estimated values of heat output and initial index finger temperature were close to 98% indicating the high percentage of variation of the total sum of squares absorbed by the fit of the curves. The superiority of the fitted curves over the other curves have been proved. Thus it is concluded that parabola and three parameter logistic curve may explain the relationships of heat output and initial index finger temperature with ambient temperature more precisely than other curves.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Gompertz curve in physiology: an application.

Gompertz curve has been successfully used to estimate mortality intensities, recovery and relapse rates for human beings suffering from specific diseases. Perhaps, no attempt has yet been made to describe statistically the phenomenon of thermoregulation efficiency of man. This paper deals with the statistical approach for describing the above mentioned phenomenon. For this purpose, Gompertz curve has been fitted to the data of recovery palm skin temperature of human subjects, which was collected after removing the hand of a subject dipped for two minutes in cold water maintained at 10 +/- 1 degree C on seven environmental situations including altitude. The coefficients of correlation between observed and estimated palm skin temperature expressed logarithmically were close to 0.99 for each situation indicating the high precision of the fitted curve. The average rates of recovery of palms skin temperature have also been compared between these seven environmental situations using analysis of covariance technique. It is concluded that recovery of palm skin temperature of sea level residents during stay at plains is much faster than their recovery at high altitude situations.

Altitude↗