Siva Jyothi N et al., Int. J. Res. Pharm. Sci., 2021, 12(2), 1639-1643 OėĎČĎēĆđ AėęĎĈđĊ IēęĊėēĆęĎĔēĆđ JĔĚėēĆđ Ĕċ RĊĘĊĆėĈč Ďē PčĆėĒĆĈĊĚęĎĈĆđ SĈĎĊēĈĊĘ Published by JK Welfare & Pharmascope Foundation Journal Home Page: www.pharmascope.org/ijrps Immediate effect of intercostal stretch on chest expansion in healthy smokers Siva Jyothi N *1 , Senthil Selvam P 2 , Srikar Narla 3 , Yatheendra Kumar G 4 , Subramanian S S 5 , Jibi Paul 6 , Mallela Bharath Kumar 7 , Ravi Shankar Reddy 8 1 Research Scholar, School of Physiotherapy, Vels Institute of Science Technology & Advanced Studies(VISTAS), Chennai-600130, Tamilnadu, India & Department of Cardiopulmonary Physiotherapy, Durgabai Deshmukh College of Physiotherapy, DDMS (AMS), Hyderabad, Telangana, India 2 School of Physiotherapy, Vels Institute of Science Technology & Advanced Studies (VISTAS), Chennai-600130, Tamil Nadu, India 3 Durgabai Deshmukh College of Physiotherapy, Hyderabad, Telangana, India 4 Susruta Institute of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Hyderabad, Telangana, India 5 Sree Balaji College of Physiotherapy, Chennai- 600100, Tamil Nadu, India 6 Dr. MGR Educational and Research Institute, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India 7 Jazan University, Jazan, Saudi Arabia 8 King Khalid University, Guraiger, Abha- Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Article History: Received on: 20 Mar 2021 Revised on: 22 Apr 2021 Accepted on: 24 Apr 2021 Keywords: Intercostal Stretch, Lung Function, Smokers, 6MWD, Neurophysiological Facilitation, Chest Measurement AćĘęėĆĈę Intercostal stretch is a neuro physiological facilitation technique which has been proved to be effective on the ventilator parameters. Smoking is a world- wide problem which causes major health risks that are related to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. Cigerrete smoking causes the alteration in lung function, increase the air way resistance and also irritates the airways. 30 sub- jects were taken for the study those who met with inclusion and exclusion cri- teria. Intercostal stretch was given to the subjects from 3 rd to 8 th rib. Chest expansion and 6 minute walk distance was calculated pre and post interven- tion immediately. Paired t test was calculated. The results of the study suggest that there is no signiϐicant difference in six minute walk distance (p>0.05) and there is a signiϐicant improvement in the chest expansion (p<0.05) immedi- ately after the intercostal stretch in healthy smokers. * Corresponding Author Name: Siva Jyothi N Phone: 9866176055 Email: sivajyothimpt@gmail.com ISSN: 0975-7538 DOI: https://doi.org/10.26452/ijrps.v12i2.4754 Production and Hosted by Pharmascope.org © 2021 | All rights reserved. INTRODUCTION Even though there is a decline in the incidence of smoking in the past few years but it still remain one of the major cause of morbidity and mortal- ity (Ng et al., 2014), smoking is one of the main pre- disposing cause for morbidity and mortality in the world (Lim et al., 2012). As per the report of World Health Organization (WHO) more than 5 million of deaths were because of the use of tobacco (World Health Organization, 2016). The main risk factor for the pulmonary and cardio vascular diseases is smoking. The respira- tory function in many of youths is affected because of smoking (Tantisuwat and Thaveeratitham, 2014). Tobacco consists of more than 4000 different com- pounds some are carcinogenic and some are irrita- tive (Jaakkola et al., 2019). Inhaling cigarette smok- ing irritates the airways causes the vaso constriction © International Journal of Research in Pharmaceutical Sciences 1639