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Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of inspiratory muscle training (IMT) and aerobic exercise on healthrelated quality of life of patients with COPD. Materials and Methods: This randomized controlled clinical trial was conducted on 60 patients with moderate to severe COPD, who were referred to Imam Hossein Hospital of Tehran, Iran in 2016. The patients were randomly assigned to four groups and treated for eight weeks. Group 1 (n=16) participated in 16 sessions of IMT (15 minutes per session), group 2 (n=14) performed aerobic exercises twice a week (40 minutes per session), group 3 (n=15) performed IMT and aerobic exercises, and group 4 (n=15) received no intervention, except for routine treatments (control). Quality of life was evaluated based on the Saint George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) at baseline, week 4, and week 8 after the intervention. Results: After eight weeks, all four groups experienced a significant improvement in their quality of life (P<0.05), and group 3 (IMT and aerobic exercise) showed the greatest improvement. However, quality of life improvement in group 4 (control) was less than the other three groups (P<0.05). Conclusion: Aerobic exercise and IMT were more effective than routine protocols in improving the quality of life of COPD patients. Furthermore, shortterm IMT plus aerobic exercise had the greatest impact on improving the health-related quality of life of COPD patients and could be used in the management of these patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cardiopulmonary exercise test has been raised through recent decades as a brilliant prognostic tool in a wide field of diseases and clinical conditions which makes it valuable to be used in prognostic assessment during the current study among chronic heart failure (CHF) patients. This study recruited 71 patients with severe CHF who were candidates for heart transplantation. Bicycle-protocol Cardiopulmonary Exercise Test was done, and several parameters were measured and compared between four groups of patients based on their VO2/kg to show four grades of the disease from G1 to G4. Total 71 CHF subjects from 18 to 46 year of age enrolled in the study. Statistically significant correlations were determined between HRR, VE/VCO2, VE/VO2, BR and the severity of CHF. VO2max, HRR, VE/VO2, VE/VCO2, BR, and AT were the most prominent factors of CPET which showed their validity and reliability in terms of prognosis of CHF. It seems that combination of CPET and other cardiac prognostic tools like echocardiography and measurement of the pressure in cardiac chambers can improve the prognosis in CHF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of inspiratory muscle training (IMT) and aerobic exercise on health-related quality of life of patients with COPD., Materials and Methods: This randomized controlled clinical trial was conducted on 60 patients with moderate to severe COPD, who were referred to Imam Hossein Hospital of Tehran, Iran in 2016. The patients were randomly assigned to four groups and treated for eight weeks. Group 1 (n=16) participated in 16 sessions of IMT (15 minutes per session), group 2 (n=14) performed aerobic exercises twice a week (40 minutes per session), group 3 (n=15) performed IMT and aerobic exercises, and group 4 (n=15) received no intervention, except for routine treatments (control). Quality of life was evaluated based on the Saint George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) at baseline, week 4, and week 8 after the intervention., Results: After eight weeks, all four groups experienced a significant improvement in their quality of life (P<0.05), and group 3 (IMT and aerobic exercise) showed the greatest improvement. However, quality of life improvement in group 4 (control) was less than the other three groups (P<0.05)., Conclusion: Aerobic exercise and IMT were more effective than routine protocols in improving the quality of life of COPD patients. Furthermore, short-term IMT plus aerobic exercise had the greatest impact on improving the health-related quality of life of COPD patients and could be used in the management of these patients., (Copyright© 2019 National Research Institute of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease.)