Cardiorespiratory status in relation to mild deformity in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis

We assessed the cardiorespiratory function in young persons with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis as they entered adult life; the condition had been detected and managed through a Montreal area school screening program in the years 1975 to 1979, and all patients had been discharged with stable condition. Thirty-two youths (average age 17.7 years) with Cobb angle from 3 to 32 degrees and 93 girls (average age 17.3 years) with Cobb angle from 3 to 46 degrees did not differ from their unaffected school friends in smoking habit, respiratory symptoms, lung volumes, expiratory flow rates, diffusing capacity, maximal respiratory pressures, or submaximal exercise results. When expressed as percent predicted, pulmonary functions were within the normal range in all but one patient. Normal results were also recorded in a subsample of 20 girls undergoing a more detailed progressive maximal exercise test. This information is pertinent for counseling the adolescent with scoliosis but needs to be supplemented by prospective measurements to determine the natural history of mild scoliosis in later adult life.