Fan Therapy in COPD Patients

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Clinical Trial

Official title:

A Pilot Study of Hand-held Fan Therapy in Breathless Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Patients

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT03137524
• Other study ID #: 218706
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• First received: April 24, 2017
• Last updated: August 3, 2017
• Start date: May 24, 2017
• Est. completion date: July 26, 2017

Study information

• Verified date: August 2017
• Source: City, University of London
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a common smoking related lung disease. The main symptom in breathlessness.

Pulmonary Rehabilitation (PR) - a supervised group exercise and education class - is an effective intervention in COPD to reduce symptoms, improve exercise performance and prevent exacerbations. However some COPD patients are unable to to effectively exercise as they are limited by their breathlessness, despite optimal medical management. By reducing their physical activity to avoid the onset of breathlessness, they become deconditioned and then further attempts at exercise make them more breathless, leading to an inactivity cycle.

There is a growing evidence base regarding the use of hand hold fan therapy or air therapy to relieve breathlessness at rest. Limited studies have looked at the use of fan therapy during exercise, and its role on exercise capacity and recovery time, provisional results which indicate it may also be useful during activity. Logically you might expect patients who are less breathless to be able to exercise more, or recover quicker.

This study aims to investigate the effects a hand held fan will have on sensation of breathlessness and exercise capacity in patients with COPD. This will involve participants undertaking a standardised field walking test ( 6 minute walk test) with and with out the fan and then comparing the distance covered and how they felt during and after exercise. This will better inform how we structure exercise and advice to these patients in the future to empower patients limited by breathlessness.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 14
• Est. completion date: July 26, 2017
• Est. primary completion date: July 26, 2017
• Accepts healthy volunteers: No
• Gender: All
• Age group: 18 Years and older

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (Forced Expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1)/Vital capacity ratio < 70%, with an observed respiratory impairment ( Global initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) stage II-IV: < 79% FEV1 predicted)

• Age > 18 years old

• Exertional breathlessness with a Medical Research Council (MRC) breathlessness scale greater of equal to 2

Exclusion Criteria:

• Recent exacerbation of COPD symptoms requiring antibiotics within the preceding 4 weeks

• Significant cardiovascular or peripheral disease that could influence exercise tolerance and ability to perform exercise test

• Unable to hold fan to face and mobilise

• On Long Term Oxygen Therapy or fulfils criteria for ambulatory oxygen

• Lack of English Language Competency

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Breathlessness
• Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
• Dyspnea
• Lung Diseases
• Lung Diseases, Obstructive
• Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive

Intervention

Device:
• Hand Held Fan Therapy
Hand-Held fan therapy used to generate airflow directed to face during specific exercise test

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
United Kingdom	King's College Hospital NHS Trust	London

Sponsors (2)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
City, University of London	King's College Hospital NHS Trust

Country where clinical trial is conducted

United Kingdom, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Breathlessness as measured on the Numerical Rating Scale (NRS)	Units on a Scale	Change from baseline measurement of breathlessness on the NRS to the measurement of breathlessness on NRS after a 6 minute walk test
Secondary	Walking distance	as measured during a 6 minute walk test	6 minutes
Secondary	Oxygen Saturation Levels	peripheral oxygen saturation levels as measured during a 6 minute walk test	6 minutes
Secondary	Recovery time	Time in mins taken for sensation of breathlessness to return to baseline levels after completion of a 6 minute walk test	in minutes, anticipate no longer than 10minutes