1. Improvement in health status following bronchopulmonary hygiene physical therapy in patients with bronchiectasis
- Author
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Surinder S. Birring, Briony Willig, Gillian Watkin, Ian D. Pavord, K Mutalithas, and Andrew J. Wardlaw
- Subjects
Male ,Quality of life ,Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine ,Respiratory Therapy ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Visual analogue scale ,Chest physiotherapy ,Severity of Illness Index ,Drainage, Postural ,Patient Education as Topic ,Bronchopulmonary hygiene physical therapy ,Severity of illness ,Humans ,Medicine ,Prospective Studies ,Prospective cohort study ,Aged ,Productive Cough ,Bronchiectasis ,business.industry ,Middle Aged ,medicine.disease ,Confidence interval ,Treatment Outcome ,Cough ,Physical therapy ,Female ,business - Abstract
Chronic productive cough is a common symptom in patients with bronchiectasis that is associated with a reduction in health-related quality of life (QOL). Bronchopulmonary hygiene physical therapy (BHPT) is widely prescribed for patients with bronchiectasis, although the evidence for its efficacy is limited. We set out to prospectively evaluate the impact of BHPT on health-related QOL in patients with non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis. We assessed cough symptoms (0-100mm visual analogue scale; VAS) and cough-related QOL in 53 patients with stable non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis at baseline and >4 weeks after outpatient-based BHPT. Cough specific health status was assessed with the Leicester Cough Questionnaire (LCQ; total score range 3-21, higher scores representing better QOL). All patients with bronchiectasis complained of cough as the major symptom and had mean (SEM) FEV(1) of 2.1 (0.1)L. Cough-related health status was reduced at baseline; mean (SEM) LCQ score 14.3 (0.6). There were significant improvements in cough symptoms (mean cough VAS before 43.3 (3.6) vs after 27.5 (3.1); mean difference 15.8; 95% CI of difference 9.6-22; p
- Published
- 2008
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