Respiratory muscle training on pulmonary and swallowing function in patients with Huntington's disease: a pilot randomised controlled trial. (October 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Reyes, Alvaro; Cruickshank, Travis; Nosaka, Kazunori; Ziman, Mel
• Is Part Of: Clinical rehabilitation. Volume 29:Number 10(2015)
• Page Start: 961
• Page End: 973
• Publication Date: 2015-10
• Subjects: Respiratory function -- swallowing -- Huntington's disease -- dysphagia -- pulmonary rehabilitation; Medical rehabilitation -- Periodicals; 617.03
• DOI: 10.1177/0269215514564087
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0269-2155

Abstract

Objective: To examine the effects of 4-month of respiratory muscle training on pulmonary and swallowing function, exercise capacity and dyspnoea in manifest patients with Huntington's disease. Design: A pilot randomised controlled trial. Setting: Home based training program. Participants: Eighteen manifest Huntington's disease patients with a positive genetic test and clinically verified disease expression, were randomly assigned to control group ( n =9) and training group ( n =9). Intervention: Both groups received home-based inspiratory (5 sets of 5 repetitions) and expiratory (5 sets of 5 repetitions) muscle training 6 times a week for 4 months. The control group used a fixed resistance of 9 centimeters of water, and the training group used a progressively increased resistance from 30% to 75% of each patient's maximum respiratory pressure. Main measures: Spirometric indices, maximum inspiratory pressure, maximum expiratory pressure, six minutes walk test, dyspnoea, water-swallowing test and swallow quality of life questionnaire were assessed before, at 2 and 4 months after training. Results: The magnitude of increases in maximum inspiratory ( d =2.9) and expiratory pressures ( d =1.5), forced vital capacity ( d =0.8), forced expiratory volume in 1 second ( d =0.9) and peak expiratory flow ( d =0.8) was substantially greater for the training group in comparison to the control group. Changes in swallowing function, dyspnoea and exercise capacity were small ( d ≤0.5) for both groups without substantial differences between groups. Conclusions: A home-based respiratory muscle training program appeared to be beneficial to improve pulmonary function in manifest Huntington's disease patients but provided small effects on swallowing function, dyspnoea and exercise capacity.