Aerobic Exercise Plus Inspiratory Muscle Training Efficacy on BODE Index in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Patients

Background: Inspiratory muscle training (IMT) has been applied during pulmonary rehabilitation in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). However, it remains unclear if the addition of IMT to a general exercise training program leads to additional clinically relevant improvements in patients with COPD. Aim of the Study: The aim of this study was to investigate whether the addition of inspiratory muscle trainer (IMT) to a general exercise training program for 2 months improved 6 min walking distance, pulmonary functions, health-related quality of life, in patients with COPD or not. Design: This study was conducted from January 2013 to November 2013 in Giza chesthospital. Patients: This study conducted on forty patients with moderate COPD men aged 45 to 55 years for 2 months. Intervention: The 40 men were randomly assigned to two groups; Group (1) (n=20) and Group (2) (n=20). Both groups followed an exercise training program for 2 months. Group (1) received an additional inspiratory muscle training (IMT) pro-gram for the same period. Main Outcomes Measures: Weight, body mass index (BMI), pulmonary function tests including FEV1, FVC, and FEV1/FVC, and Six minutes’ walk test, mMRC and BODE index. Results: After 2 months, men in Group (1) (IMT and exercise training) showed a highly significant improvement in pulmonaryfunctions (FEV1 with p 0.0001, FVC with p 0.001), 6MWD withp 0.001, and BODE indexwith p 0.0001). In Group (2) (exercise training) also demonstrated significant statistically differences in the mean values in pulmonary func-tions (FEV1 with p 0.001, FVC with p 0.0001), 6MWD withp 0.001, and BODE indexwith p 0.000 1). The improvement in Group (1) was more than in Group (2) in all variables. Conclusions: The present study found that short-term aerobic training program plus IMT had the capacity to break out the vicious circle of dyspnea, physical inactivity and exercise in-tolerance-the hallmark features of COPD patients and improve some components of BODE index.