Abstract

The effectiveness of pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) has been recognized in national and international guidelines and highlighted by the National Institute of Clinical Excellence as one of the six key priorities for improving the care of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients. PR is likely to be effective in bronchiectasis as it is in COPD. We evaluated the efficacy of PR in the management of bronchiectasis. Three patients affected by bronchiectasis, with cough, sputum production, dyspnea, and decreased exercise tolerance, were submitted to five months of PR program consisting in treadmill walking, cycle ergometry, breathing exercises, and postural drainage with clapping percussion-vibratory-shaking. In all patients, after PR, chest x-ray showed that the obstructive disease decreased with bronchial wall thickness reduction. This improvement facilitated the performance of breath actions increasing the exercise tolerance and quality of life, evaluated respectively with the 6-minute walking test, the SF36, and the Borg scale. These results highlighted the potential role of PR in patients with bronchiectasis, however further investigations are needed to identify the most eligible patients and to optimize the training programs to maintain long term benefit. Chest x-ray may represent a relevant instrument to observe the clinical improvement of these patients, also when spirometric values do not change significantly.

Autore Pugliese

• Ranieri Maurizio

Tutti gli autori

• RANIERI M.;FIORE P.

Titolo volume/Rivista

Non Disponibile

Anno di pubblicazione

2012

ISSN

1973-9087

ISBN

Non Disponibile

Numero di citazioni Wos

6

Ultimo Aggiornamento Citazioni

Non Disponibile

Numero di citazioni Scopus

6

Ultimo Aggiornamento Citazioni

Non Disponibile

Settori ERC

Non Disponibile

Codici ASJC

Non Disponibile