The following is a summary of “Presence of extra-pulmonary treatable traits increases the likelihood of responding to pulmonary rehabilitation,” published in the January 2023 issue of Pulmonology by Souto-Miranda, et al.
According to studies, those with worse baseline symptoms of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) seem to benefit more from pulmonary rehabilitation (PR). Differentiating between responders and non-responders may be made easier by identifying treatable traits (TTs). For a study, researchers investigated whether the existence of TT affected the kind of response to PR and how PR affected extra-pulmonary features in persons with COPD.
Before and after a 12-week community-based PR program, a thorough evaluation of 9 TT was undertaken, looking at symptoms (dyspnoea, tiredness, anxiety, and depression), functional ability, deconditioning, balance, the effect of the illness, and health-related quality of life. Independent samples t-tests or Mann-Whitney U tests were used to evaluate baseline differences between those who had each TT and did not have them. In addition, chi-square testing and odds ratio were used to investigate the response rate differences between the groups.
About 78% of the 102 COPD patients were men, with an average age of 70 [65–75] years and a projected FEV1 of 47 [36–60]%. Each patient reacted on average to 5 (out of 9) PR outcomes, with a median of 3 (out of 9) TTs per individual. With the exception of the 1-minute sit-to-stand test, people with TT were more responsive than those without them in all outcomes (P< 0.05). The chance of having an excellent responder rose 4 to 20 times in the presence of TT.
When it came to patient prioritizing, therapy personalization (activating the most appropriate components), and optimization, identifying baseline extra-pulmonary TT in COPD patients could provide information on PR response.
Reference: resmedjournal.com/article/S0954-6111(22)00351-1/fulltext
