Inspiratory Muscle Training and Arterial Blood Oxygen Saturation in Patients With Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Abstract

Background: One of the problems of the patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the weakness of the respiratory muscles that causes oxygen desaturation at rest and activity and decreases exercise tolerance. Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the effect of inspiratory muscle training on arterial oxygen saturation (SPO2). Patients and Methods: Forty patients with mild to very severe COPD were recruited for this study, which is a randomized control trail. The patients were randomized to IMT (inspiratory muscle training) and control group. Training was performed with Respivol (a kind of inspiratory muscle trainer) for 8 weeks (15 min/d for 6 d/week). SPSS software version 16 was used to analyze the data by performing independent t test, paired t test, and Fisher exact test. Results: Results showed that, after 8 weeks of inspiratory muscle training, there was a little increase (but not statistically significant improvement) in SPO2 (from 92.6 ± 8.71 % to 95.13 ± 7.08 %, with P = 0.06), whereas it remained unchanged in the control group (from 96.0 ± 3.46 % to 96.4 ± 3.35 % with P = 0.51). No statistically significant difference was seen between the two groups (P > 0.05). Conclusions: Although inspiratory muscles training can prevent desaturation, which is caused by activity, it fails to improve it.