GENDER DIFFERENCES IN AIRWAY DYNAMICS IN HEALTHY NONSMOKING LIBYAN MEDICAL STUDENTS

Khalil El Saiti1, Md. Nazrul Islam2 Tarun Kumar Das3

Khalil El Saiti1, Md. Nazrul Islam2 Tarun Kumar Das3 1Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Garyounis University, Benghazi, Libya. 2Department of Physiology, Chitwan School of Medical Sciences, Bharatpur, Nepal. 3Department of Physiology, ESIC Postgraduate Institute of Medical Science & Research, Joka, Kolkata, India.

Abstract

Some of the respiratory structures and functions vary with the gender. Only 2-3 parameters of the forced vital capacity (FVC) were studied earlier in both sexes in Libyan population. In the present study, we have measured all the parameters of forced expiratory vital capacity in homogenous age group (18-20 years) of 50 male and 58 female Libyan medical students. All the values of FVC including forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV₁), forced expiratory flow rates (FEF) at 0.2 to 1.2 L, 25-75% of FVC and 75-85% of FVC were found to be significantly higher in male compared to female subjects. Instantaneous expiratory flows at 75%, 50% and 25% of remaining FVC in lung (V_max75%, Vmax_50% and Vmax_25%) were found to be significantly higher in male compared to female subjects. However FEV₁% (ratio of FEV₁ to FVC) and FEF_25-75%/ FVC ratio were significantly higher in female compared to male subjects. The differences of these dynamic respiratory functions in male and female subjects may have some influences in clinical manifestation of airway disease.

Key words: Airway dynamics, forced vital capacity, instantaneous expiratory flows.