COPD is a chronic and progressive condition that can lead to increasingly reduced airflow and respiratory function in patients. If allowed to progress unchecked, these issues significantly contribute to mortality rates of patients. Respiratory muscle training (RMT) has proven beneficial for improvement of respiratory muscle strength, exercise capacity, dyspnea and quality of life (QOL) in COPD patients. The effect of RMT in addition to general exercise as part of pulmonary rehabilitation, however, is less established.

In order to determine RMT’s effect on exercise as part of rehabilitation, research regarding both muscle training and general exercise was conducted. The study discussed today tested RMT in addition to general exercise reconditioning (GER) to check for improvement of respiratory muscle strength, exercise capacity, dyspnea and QOL in COPD patients as well as when compared to GER alone.

Key Findings

• While the effects of RMT on the symptoms of COPD are well established, the effect of RMT in addition to general exercise during pulmonary rehabilitation is unclear.
• 8 weeks of RMT plus general exercise improved respiratory muscle strength and exercise capacity more than general exercise alone.

Patient Impact

RMT effectively improves the benefits of general exercise.

Study Methods

COPD patients underwent eight weeks of GER and/or inspiratory muscle training (IMT), and the following variables were measured:

Respiratory muscle strength (pimax and pemax)

Exercise capacity (6MWD)

Dyspnea

QOL

The above were assessed at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of the study period.

Study Results

PImax and PEmax, and 6MWD improved significantly more due to RMT in addition to GER than due to GER alone.

RMT significantly improves benefits of GER alone with regards to respiratory muscle strength and exercise capacity and should be included in pulmonary rehabilitation.