Exercise evaluation of breathing pattern responses to exercise

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Assessment of ventilatory function during real-world exercise field tests

• IRAS ID

  244904

• Contact name

  Colm McCabe

• Contact email

  c.mccabe2@rbht.nhs.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  Imperial College

• Duration of Study in the UK

  1 years, 0 months, 8 days

• Research summary

  Ventilatory responses to exercise make a significant contribution to the work of breathing and play an understated role in exercise limitation in adults with a number of cardiopulmonary disorders. The response of the ventilatory system to increased metabolic work is relatively understudied particularly in heart or lung conditions where under traditional teaching, exercise limitation has been regarded as non-pulmonary in origin. Example include chronic heart failure, dysfunctional breathing or anxiety-related breathlessness.
  
  This study will investigate ventilatory exercise function in specific patient populations to include patients with pulmonary hypertension, unexplained breathlessness, patients awaiting surgical resection for lung cancer and asymptomatic controls. The study will analyse detailed ventilatory function during both incremental and real-world exercise tests when patients symptoms are most reflective of experiences in day to day life. Real world exercise tests will include a 6 minute walk test on the flat, a short stair climb test as well as an activity based assessment such as hoovering. In the analysis, novel outcome measures of ventilatory dysfunction, including quantification of abnormal breathing patterns (ventilatory entropy) and flow volume loop assessments of ventilatory limitation will be used to ascertain the physiological impact of ventilatory exercise responses which go beyond commonly used parameters of ventilatory limitation that rely on lung function derived estimates of exercise ventilatory capacity.

  It is anticipated that better characterisation of ventilatory responses in these conditions may encourage earlier and more targeted treatments aimed at optimising exercise respiratory function including physiotherapist delivered-breathing retraining and pulmonary rehabilitation which traditionally have been reserved for specific chronic respiratory conditions.

• REC name

  West Midlands - South Birmingham Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  18/WM/0268

• Date of REC Opinion

  5 Oct 2018

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion