Effect of slow loaded inspiratory breathing training in blood pressure and heart rate in elderly chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients with co-existing hypertension: a pilot study.

Abstract

Hypertension (HT) is a high prevalence comorbid in elderly chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients. The HT is a major risk of cardiovascular disease which leads to mortality in COPD patients. Previous studies reported that slow loaded inspiratory breathing training (SLB) was an effective antihypertensive intervention in elderly people with hypertension. Thus, the aims of this study was to evaluate the effect of SLB on blood pressure and heart rate in elderly COPD patients with co-existing hypertension who received daily anti-hypertensive drugs. Ten male COPD patients with well controlled hypertension, age 69.6±6.06 years participated in a randomized control study. Participants were divided in to SLB group (n=5) and control group (n=5). Participants in SLB group performed slow loaded inspiratory breathing exercise with 30 % of maximum inspiratory pressure, at 6 breaths/min, 30 min/day, every day for 8 weeks. Similar program of breathing exercise without resistive load was performed in the control group. The breathing training were carried out at home in both groups without changing medications and other pulmonary rehabilitation program. Morning home blood pressures (systolic blood pressure, SBP and diastolic blood pressure, DBP) and heart rate were self-measured for 7 days before and after training; average value were used to compare effect of breathing training. The results in SLB group (median (IQR)) showed that there were no statistical difference of SBP [117.14 (115.29, 122.21) vs 121.43 (116.71,122.43) mmHg] and DBP [63.57 (61.14,74.86) vs 66.67 (61.43,79) mmHg] at after or before training, as same as the heart rate result [76 (73,77) vs 72 (70,76) bpm]. Similar findings were found in the control group. No statistical differences were found between groups. Thus, this pilot study can be concluded that SLB did not effect on resting blood pressure and heart rate in elderly COPD-HT who received anti-hypertensive drugs.

Key words:  COPD, Hypertension, Slow loaded inspiratory breathing.