Abstract
Different forms of training focusing on the muscles of the upper airways showed limited effects on obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and/or snoring. We investigated the effect of generalized respiratory muscle training (RMT) in lean patients with mild to moderate OSA. Nine male subjects (52.0±10.8years, BMI 29.1±2.1kg/m2) with obstructive sleep apnea (apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) 9-29) participated in an open, single-arm pilot study. After a 1-week build-up phase, patients underwent 4weeks of normocapnic hyperpnea RMT five times a week for 30min each. The initial and final measurements comprised polysomnography, pulmonary function tests, Epworth sleepiness scale (ESS), and SF-36 questionnaire (quality of life (QoL) self-assessment). The investigational site was a university-affiliated hospital for pulmonary diseases and sleep medicine, Solingen/Germany. Patients trained effectively, seen by a significant (p<0.01) increase of breathing frequency (23.3±1.5 /min vs. 30.6±2.9 /min) and minute volume (81.2±13.7L vs. 109.1±21.9L). AHI, snoring and ESS remained unchanged after training. QoL as measured by SF-36 significantly (p<0.05) improved after the training in the subscales "bodily pain" (79±21 vs. 90±12) and "change of health" (3.1±0.3 vs. 2.4±0.5). There is no evidence that AHI, pulmonary function or daytime sleepiness are affected by 5weeks of RMT. Nevertheless, there is an improvement of parameters of quality of life. ClinicalTrials.gov , register no. NCT 00936286.
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