Identifying the nutritional status and determining any requirement for nutritional supplement is an important component of comprehensive pulmonary rehabilitation programme. SGA is an easy and practical method to assess nutritional status in pulmonary rehabilitation candidate patients with stable COPD.
Purpose:
Pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) is advocated in the pre- and post–lung transplantation (LTx) periods. However, there is limited literature on the benefit of PR post-LTx. The aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy of an outpatient, multidisciplinary, comprehensive PR program in bilateral LTx recipients in the early period after LTx.
Method:
Twenty-three LTx recipients were referred to the PR center. Change in incremental and endurance shuttle walk tests, hand and quadriceps strength, respiratory muscle strength (maximum inspiratory/expiratory pressure), dyspnea (Medical Research Council score), quality of life (St George's Respiratory Questionnaire, Chronic Respiratory Questionnaire), and psychological status (Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale) were compared pre- and post-PR.
Results:
Seventeen of 23 (74%) recipients completed PR, comprising 15 male and 2 female patients whose median age was 51 yr. The initiation of the program was 75 ± 15 d after LTx. The incremental shuttle walk test distance was predicted as 23% before PR and it increased to 36% after PR (P < .001); the endurance shuttle walk test distance also increased (P < .01). Significant improvement was seen in upper and lower extremity strength, and St George's Respiratory Questionnaire and Chronic Respiratory Questionnaire scores and Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale scores reflected less anxiety and depressive symptoms. Furthermore, body mass and fat-free mass indices, maximum inspiratory pressure, and maximum expiratory pressure improved significantly. There was no significant change in forced expiratory volume in the first second of expiration, forced vital capacity, or Medical Research Council scores.
Conclusion:
This study demonstrated that patients who attended PR within 3 mo of bilateral LTx showed improvements in exercise capacity, respiratory muscle strength, quality of life, body composition, and psychological status.
BACKGROUND:The aim was to evaluate the outcomes of a comprehensive pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and to establish whether in early disease stage PR is as effective as in late stages of disease.METHODS:A total of 55 stable COPD patients, 28 with early and 27 with late disease stages, were assessed. Patients underwent a comprehensive out-patient PR program for 8 weeks. To eluciate the effects of PR and compare the level of improvement; lung function, dyspnea sensation [Medical Research Council (MRC)], body composition [body mass index (BMI), fat free mass (FFM), fat free mass index (FFMI)], exercise capacity [incremental shuttle walking test, endurance shuttle walking test], health related quality of life (HRQoL) with St. George Respiratory Disease Questionnaire, psycohological status (Hospital anxiety–depression (HAD) scale) were evaluated before and after PR.RESULTS:At the end of PR in the early disease stage group, the improvement in forced vital capacity (FVC) reached a statistically significant level (P < 0.05). In both disease stages, there were no significant differences in BMI, FFM, and FFMI. The decrease in exertional dyspnea for the two groups evaluated with the modified BORG scale were not found statistically significant, though the dyspnea scores evaluated with MRC showed significant improvements (P < 0.001). HRQoL and exercise capacity were significantly improved for the two groups (P < 0.001). Psychological status evaluated with the HAD scale improved after PR (P < 0.001) both in early and late stages. Gainings in the study parameters did not differ in the early and the late disease stages.CONCLUSIONS:These results showed that patients with COPD had benefited from a comprehensive PR program in an out-patient setting regardless of disease severity. Even patients with earlier stage of disease should be referred and encouraged to participate in a PR program.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.