Effects of Vitabreath on exercise capacity and dyspnoea v0.2
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A multi centre, randomised controlled crossover trial investigating the effect of Vitabreath portable positive pressure ventilation device on exercise tolerance and breathlessness in patients with COPD
IRAS ID
217608
Contact name
Stephanie Mansell
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
City, University of London
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 5 months, 16 days
Research summary
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a common long term condition of the lungs usually caused by smoking. The most common symptoms are breathlessness, followed by coughing and too much sputum. As the condition worsens, breathlessness begins to impact on how much people are able to manage day to day. This starts a vicious cycle of doing less, being less fit, and worsening breathlessness.
Evidence suggests that as patients do less day to day activity they can become increasingly isolated with a reduced quality of life. They are also more likely to experience short term flare ups of their symptoms (known as exacerbations) which increases the likelihood of being admitted to hospital and can speed up the progression of the disease.
Providing positive pressure involves having air delivered into the lungs to help them expand and lower the effort of breathing. It is traditionally delivered via a tight fitting mask connected to a breathing machine via tubing. Studies have previously shown that the delivery of positive pressure into the airways during exercise can reduce breathlessness and increase the amount of time that patients can exercise for.
Despite the previous studies showing benefit from using this therapy it was deemed impractical due to the time involved in setting up the breathing machine, the mask being uncomfortable, and the fact that many machines are static and mains powered.
In 2015 Philips Respironics released Vitabreath (Philips Respironics, Murraysville, USA), a small hand held positive pressure device aimed at decreasing breathlessness in people with COPD.
Our study aims to test how useful this device is in increasing walking distance and improving breathlessness in people with COPD. We aim to compare the distance participants are able to walk and their levels of breathlessness when walking with no device, against the same measurements when the Vitabreath device is used.REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Bradford Leeds Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/YH/0112
Date of REC Opinion
6 Apr 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion