Ülkü Sarpkaya1, Hakan Tuna1, Gündeniz Altıay2, Erhan Tabakoğlu2

Keywords: Chronic obstructive lung disease, ventilatory muscle training, aerobic exercise program, respiratory functional test, arterial blood gases

Abstract

The main aim of pulmonary rehabilitation is to improve life quality, strength and endurance; additionally prevent dyspnea as well. Our study designed for evaluation the effectiveness of pulmonary rehabilitation was conducted in 19 COPD patients (16/3 men/women) whose mean (SD) age was 61,00 (9,6) years and mean forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) was 1,46 (0,60). After completion of 6-8 weeks homebased threshold IMT ventilatory muscle training program, hospital-based 3 weeks intensive bicycle ergometer exercise training was conducted for each patient. There were statistically significant improvements in FEV1, forced vital capacity (FVC), maximum inspiratory-expiratory pressure (PImax- PEmax), arterial oxygen pressure and oxygen saturation (PO2, SaO2), 6 minute walk distance (p<0,05). These results confirm our thought that pulmonary rahabilitation could be separated confidently and additional benefits could be more powerful with preparing the respiratory system before aerobic exercise training.