Fan Therapy in COPD Patients

NCT03137524 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: 218706
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 14
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief 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.

Conditions

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease; Breathlessness

Keywords

Fan or Air Therapy

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• 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 Outcomes (3)

• Walking distance

  6 minutes

• Oxygen Saturation Levels

  6 minutes

• Recovery time

  in minutes, anticipate no longer than 10minutes

Study Arms (2)

Hand Held Fan Therapy

EXPERIMENTAL

Device: Hand Held Fan Therapy

No Intervention

NO INTERVENTION

Interventions

Hand Held Fan Therapy DEVICE

Hand-Held fan therapy used to generate airflow directed to face during specific exercise test

Hand Held Fan Therapy

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: No
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• 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

You may not qualify if:

• 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

Sponsors & Collaborators

• City, University of London: lead
• King's College Hospital NHS Trust: collaborator

Study Sites (1)

King's College Hospital NHS Trust

London, SE5 9RS, United Kingdom

Location

Related Publications (1)

• Long A, Cartwright M, Reilly CC. Impact of fan therapy during exercise on breathlessness and recovery time in patients with COPD: a pilot randomised controlled crossover trial. ERJ Open Res. 2021 Nov 8;7(4):00211-2021. doi: 10.1183/23120541.00211-2021. eCollection 2021 Oct.

  PMID: 34760995 DERIVED

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive; Dyspnea

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Lung Diseases, Obstructive; Lung Diseases; Respiratory Tract Diseases; Chronic Disease; Disease Attributes; Pathologic Processes; Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms; Respiration Disorders; Signs and Symptoms, Respiratory; Signs and Symptoms

Study Officials

• Martin Dr Cartwright, BSc, MSc, PhD

  City, University of London

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: TREATMENT
• Intervention Model: CROSSOVER
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Model Details: Single Centre Pilot study using a randomised controlled crossover design (aka randomised A-B single-subject design).

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: April 24, 2017
• First Posted: May 2, 2017
• Study Start: May 24, 2017
• Primary Completion: July 26, 2017
• Study Completion: July 26, 2017
• Last Updated: August 4, 2017

Record last verified: 2017-08

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

GB (1)