%0 Journal Article
%T A crossover study of short burst oxygen therapy (SBOT) for the relief of exercise-induced breathlessness in severe COPD
%A B Ronan O'Driscoll
%A Jane Neill
%A Siddiq Pulakal
%A Peter M Turkington
%J BMC Pulmonary Medicine
%D 2011
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1471-2466-11-23
%X 34 COPD patients with FEV1 <40% predicted and resting oxygen saturation ¡Ý93% undertook an exercise step test 4 times. After exercise, patients were given 4 l/min of oxygen from a simple face mask, 4 l/min air from a face mask (single blind), air from a fan or no intervention.Average oxygen saturation fell from 95.0% to 91.3% after exercise. The mean time to subjective recovery was 3.3 minutes with no difference between treatments. The mean Borg breathlessness score was 1.5/10 at rest, rising to 5.1/10 at the end of exercise (No breathlessness = 0, worst possible breathlessness = 10). Oxygen therapy had no discernable effect on Borg scores even for 14 patients who desaturated below 90%. 15 patients had no preferred treatment, 7 preferred oxygen, 6 preferred the fan, 3 preferred air via a mask and 3 preferred room air.This study provides no support for the idea that COPD patients who are not hypoxaemic at rest derive noticeable benefit from oxygen therapy after exercise. Use of air from a mask or from a fan had no apparent physiological or placebo effect.Oxygen therapy is beneficial for many patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). It is used to correct dangerous hypoxaemia in acute exacerbations of COPD and it is known that long term oxygen therapy (LTOT) can prolong life expectancy in patients with COPD who have got chronic hypoxaemia, especially if there is evidence of cor pulmonale [1-3]. It has also been demonstrated that the use of ambulatory oxygen therapy during exercise tests in the laboratory can increase exercise distance and reduce exercise-induced breathlessness in patients with COPD who desaturated during exertion although the reported benefits in the home environment were less impressive [4-7]. The most controversial form of oxygen therapy in COPD is known as short burst oxygen therapy (SBOT) [8]. This involves the use of oxygen either before or, more commonly, after exercise by patients with COPD who are not hypoxaemic at rest. This
%U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2466/11/23