The study was conducted in a cross-section design. We enrolled patients with AIS of both gender aging between 11 and 18 years. Patients with previous or current history of heart, lung, or neuromuscular disease and patients who, for any reason, failed to perform the assessments pro- posed were excluded. Patients were asked about their level of physical activity in their daily life, and those who re- ported to be physically active [9] were also excluded. Pa- tients were referred to the Orthopedic Clinic of a local hospital, where they underwent radiographic evaluation of Cobb angles. The healthy adolescents were recruited through advertisements through local newspapers for
screening and physical therapy evaluation; those who re- ported being physically active were excluded [9]. All the study participants signed informed consents. The present study was approved by the local ethics committee (no. 86,955).
We evaluated 60 participants, among which 31 had been previously diagnosed with AIS and 29 represented healthy in- dividuals. The clinical screening of the control group was per- formed by a single examiner according to the Brazilian Society of Orthopaedics and Traumatology recommendations. The Adam’s Forward Bending Test was the primary test used to exclude subjects with any spinal deformity. In addition, we performed subjective postural assessment of the following pa- rameters: shoulders, scapulae, and pelvis alignments.
Participants performed two ISWTs. The cardiovascular, ventilatory, and metabolic responses were continuously monitored throughout the second ISWT. Respiratory muscle strength and lung function were also assessed.