PULMONARY REHABILITATION FOR PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC OBSTRUCTIVE PULMONARY DISEASE

Ying Xu^*, Hong Wu, Guiying Gan

Department of Respiratory Medicine, Zhujiang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510282, China

Introduction: Pulmonary rehabilitation is a non-pharmacological, comprehensive and multidisciplinary intervention for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients. This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of pulmonary rehabilitation on the disease rehabilitation in COPD patients. 

Materials and methods: A total of 42 COPD in patients treated in our hospital from January 2017 to January 2018 were enrolled and randomly divided into the control group (n=20) who received conventional medication treatment for COPD and the intervention group (n=22) who received conventional medication treatment plus pulmonary rehabilitation. The COPD assessment test (CAT) score, modified British Medical Research Council (mMRC, an indicator for dyspnea in chronic respiratory diseases) score and percentage of predicted value of forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1%) were assessed before and after treatment. 

Results: Pulmonary rehabilitation protocol can significantly decrease the CAT score (before treatment vs. after treatment, 22.45±4.51 vs. 11.68±3.37, P<0.001), the mMRC (2.82±0.80 vs. 1.32±0.48, P<0.001) and significantly improved the FEV1% predicted value (45%±21% vs. 50%±23%, P=0.006). In the control group, only the CAT score and the mMRC were significantly decreased after treatment (both P<0.001). In addition, the decrease in CAT score was significantly greater in the intervention group than in the control group (P=0.047, Mann-Whitney U test).

Conclusions: These results suggested that pulmonary rehabilitation can effectively relieve the symptoms of COPD and improve the lung function of COPD patients.