Volitional pursed lips breathing in patients with stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease improves exercise capacity.

Pursed lips breathing (PLB) is used by a proportion of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) to alleviate dyspnea. It is also commonly used in pulmonary rehabilitation. Data to support its use in patients who do not spontaneously adopt PLB are limited. We performed this study to assess the acute effects of PLB on exercise capacity in nonspontaneously PLB patients with stable COPD. We performed a randomized crossover study comparing 6-min walk test (6MWT) at baseline without PLB with 6WMT using volitional PLB. Spirometry, maximal inspiratory and expiratory mouth pressures, and diaphragmatic excursion during tidal and vital capacity breathing using B-mode ultrasonography were measured at baseline and after 10 min of PLB. A Visual Analog Scale (VAS) assessed subjective breathlessness at rest, after 6MWT and after 6MWT with PLB. p ≤ 0.01 was considered significant. Mean ± SD age of patients was 53.1 ± 7.4 years. Forced expiratory volume in 1 second was 1.1 ± 0.4 L/min (38.4 ± 13.2% predicted). Compared with spontaneous breathing, all but one patient with PLB showed a significant increment in 6MW distance (+34.9 ± 26.4 m; p = 0.002). There was a significant reduction in respiratory rate post 6MWT with PLB compared with spontaneous breathing (-4.4 ± 2.8 per minute; p = 0.003). There was no difference in VAS scores. There was a significant correlation between improvement in 6MWT distance and increase in diaphragmatic excursion during forced breathing. The improvement was greater in patients who had poorer baseline exercise performance. PLB has an acute benefit on exercise capacity. Sustained PLB or short bursts of PLB may improve exercise capacity in stable COPD.