PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Rokhsaneh Tehrany AU - Anne Bruton AU - Anna Barney TI - Breathing patterns in patients with chronic respiratory disease before and after a six week Pulmonary Rehabilitation programme DP - 2014 Sep 01 TA - European Respiratory Journal PG - P3346 VI - 44 IP - Suppl 58 4099 - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/44/Suppl_58/P3346.short 4100 - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/44/Suppl_58/P3346.full SO - Eur Respir J2014 Sep 01; 44 AB - Background:Pulmonary Rehabilitation (PR) has been reported to increase exercise tolerance and health related quality of life in patients with chronic respiratory disease (CRD). Currently it is not known if breathing patterns alter following this intervention.Aim: To examine whether quiet breathing and speech breathing patterns alter in patients with CRD following a six week PR programme.Method:Twenty patients (mean age 69.7±8.81) with CRD (COPD (n=14) and Bronchiectasis (n=6)) were recruited from a UK NHS hospital. Breathing patterns were recorded non-invasively using Respiratory Inductive Plethysmography (RIP) on the first day, at three weeks and then on the last day of PR during four tasks each lasting two minutes (quiet breathing, reading, spontaneous speech and counting). Six breathing parameters were extracted; Inspiration and expiration time (TI and TE), breathing cycle duration (Ttot), respiratory rate (RR) and inspiration and expiration volume (IV and EV).Results: No statistically significant differences (p>0.05) were found for any of the breathing parameters measured pre and post PR. Self reported breathlessness measured at rest also did not change significantly between the baseline and six week session following PR.Conclusion:These preliminary findings suggest that breathing patterns produced during quiet breathing and speech remain stable following a six week PR programme in patients with CRD. Further research is needed to determine whether breathing patterns remain stable following interventions that aim to modify breathing pattern (breathing retraining), because breathing pattern analysis has potential to be used for monitoring purposes.