PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Atsuhito Nakazawa
AU  - Takeshi Shinohara
AU  - Eri Hagiwara
AU  - Kaori Tsuruta
AU  - Takuma Sasaki
AU  - Takashi Ogura
AU  - Hiroshi Takahashi
TI  - Comparison of efficacy of respiratory rehabilitation in patients with COPD and interstitial lung disease
DP  - 2011 Sep 01
TA  - European Respiratory Journal
PG  - p4811
VI  - 38
IP  - Suppl 55
4099  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/38/Suppl_55/p4811.short
4100  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/38/Suppl_55/p4811.full
SO  - Eur Respir J2011 Sep 01; 38
AB  - Objectives: There are few reports describing the efficacy of pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) in patients with interstitial lung disease (ILD). We studied whether PR could improve functional status and dyspnea in a group of patients with ILD in comparison with patients with COPD.Methods: Seventy three outpatients (mean age 71y, male: female = 57:16, ILD: COPD: others = 22: 36: 15) joined a 12-week PR program including exercise training, physiotherapy and education. Six-minute walking test, lung function test and evaluation of health-related quality of life (St George's Respiratory Questionnaire: SGRQ, Short Form questionnaire: SF-36) were performed before and after the program and retrospectively analyzed.Results: We found substantial decrease in SGRQ score from 42.1 to 33.9 (p<0.0409) in total patients. Patients with ILD responded well to the program with the improvement of 6-minute walking distance (318.4 m to 331.6 m) and Borg score (5.2 to 4.4). There was no difference between the level of improvement in patients with COPD and ILD.Conclusions: Our results show that PR improves both functional status and dyspnea in patients with ILD to the same extent as with COPD. PR should be considered as a standard of care for ILD patients.