Meta- analysis revealed few clinical ly relevant and statistically significant benefits of " add-on " therapies on exercise performance compared with exercise training .
The aim of this review was to identify the effectiveness of therapies added on to conventional exercise training to maximise exercise capacity in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease ( COPD ) .
[Exercise training in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Comparative study of aerobic training of lower limbs vs. combination with upper limbs].
A prospect i ve , r and omized and controlled study has been performed in 28 patients with severe COPD . A group of 14 has been trained with their lower limbs ( LL ) , while another similar group of 14 patients was also trained with their upper limbs ( UL ) . Results showed improvement in both groups in the endurance test for LL , dyspnea scale , efficiency and muscular working capacity . A considerable improvement was observed in the oxygen uptake at the anerobic threshold ( VO2AT ) which suggests a training effect , expressed through an improvement in exercise tolerance . Only the group who trained UL showed a remarkable improvement in the dyspnea scale , endurance test and maximal static mouth pressure , showing a better intrinsic working capacity and participation of the UL muscles producing those manoeuvres . At the end of training , quality of life was significantly increased and the hospitalization rate was lower in both groups . According to these findings , it is suggested that patients with severe COPD included in training programmes add UL exercises to the LL usually carried out
Meta- analysis revealed few clinical ly relevant and statistically significant benefits of " add-on " therapies on exercise performance compared with exercise training .
The aim of this review was to identify the effectiveness of therapies added on to conventional exercise training to maximise exercise capacity in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease ( COPD ) .