The Diaphragm Muscle Manual Evaluation Scale

Abstract

This is a technical report describing how to use the Manual Evaluation Diaphragm (MED) scale, the only evaluation scale in the world to generate a value for the mobility of the main respiratory muscle. In a previously published paper, we described how the areas of the diaphragm should be palpated correctly because a valid manual diaphragmatic evaluation was lacking in the literature. The MED scale emerged as a logical consequence of manual palpation, to provide reference values and allow comparisons between the assessments of different health professionals in multidisciplinary teams. The scale is the first non-instrumental approach to obtaining data on diaphragm function and provides parameters by which the effects that a therapeutic approach has on the diaphragm can be measured.