Objective: The most common chest wall deformity, pectus excavatum (PEX), can lead to restrictive cardiovascular and psychological pathologies, as well as the cosmetic distress.

Material and Method: By patients with PEX the relationships of the Haller index (HI), antropometric index (AI) and lower vertebral index (LVI), which are classifying the severity of the deformity, with spirometric parameters which predict restricition, Beck Depression scores applied according to illness based depression and demographic datas were evaluated in our study.

Results: Three females (19%) and 13 males (81%) totally 16 patients with PEX with mean age 26.8 years, were included. The FVC% values, evaluated restrictive respiratory patterns of the subjects, significantly correlated negatively with HI (r=-0.699 ve p<0.01), AI (r=-0.579 ve p=0.019) and LVI (r=-0.559 ve p=0.025). This correlation was very significant for HI. It hase revealed that Beck depression scores were correlated positively with the age (r=0.504 ve p=0.046). Five of thepatients (31%) had PEX family histories. Between family history positives and negatives (69%) there were no significant differences observed in HI, AI, LVI, FVC % values and Beck Depression scores. Although each 3 indexes correlated with the restrictive spirometric datas, HI is the most valuable index according to our results.

Conclusion: It is thought that depressive mood risk sincrease with the duration of age lived with the deformity,and the PEX existance in family would not affect the severity of deformity and secondary morbidity.