Acute effects of a flutter device and chest wall compression on respiratory system impedance in bronchiectasis patients

Abstract

The bronchiectasis are pathologically caractherised by abnormal and permanent dilation if the bronchi, caused mainly by the continuous inflammatory process and impairement of mucociliary clearance. The physiotherapy is one important part of treatment using its different techniques and devices. The objective of this study is to evaluate the respiratory system impedance after breathing exercises using flutter valve or chest compression considering that there are no results in the literature regarding the effects of these techniques on small airways in these patients. Bronchiectasis patients and healthy subjects will be evaluated before and after a 30 minutes session of control, breathing exercises with flutter valve, that is a device that produces oscilation and positive pressure during the expiratory phase, or chest compression, that is a manual manoevre in the right and left sides of the lower chest, all of them in a sitting position. The main outcome will be obtained by impulse oscillometry, that is a method to access large and small airways, to evaluate the resistance (R), reactance (X), reactance area (AX) and resonant frequency (Fres) of respiratory system for the whole breath and for inspiratory and expiratory phase. Additionally, will be analised the dyspnea Medical Research Council scale; acceptabililitty and tolerability scale; pulse oxymetry; difficulty of expectoration score; and volume, adesivity and purulence of sputum. (AU)