Supplemental oxygen improves endurance training in nonhypoxemic COPD

The study included 29 non-hypoxemic COPD patients of average age of 60 years. The patients who underwent two consecutive 6-week periods of endurance and strength training for three times a week, with either supplemental oxygen or medical air. The sessions involved electrocardiography-controlled interval cycling and strength-training exercises. The study demonstrated a significant difference in peak work rate with an increase more than twice as high in the oxygen group (0.16 ± 0.02 W/kg vs. 0.07 ± 0.02 W/kg; P < .001) which were the primary endpoint. This positive impact extended to all secondary endpoints related to exercise capacity, marking a 39.1% overall training effect.

The findings suggest that supplemental oxygen in non-hypoxemic COPD patients increases the effect of endurance training. This finding holds positive outcomes that could revolutionize COPD management by providing a novel approach to improve exercise capacity of patients. While oxygen did not influence strength gain it showed profound outcomes that enhance the implications of overall exercise.

Source:

Neunhäuserer, D., Steidle-Kloc, E., Weiss, G., Kaiser, B., Niederseer, D., Hartl, S., Tschentscher, M., Egger, A., Schönfelder, M., Lamprecht, B., Studnicka, M., & Niebauer, J. (2016). Supplemental Oxygen During High-Intensity Exercise Training in Nonhypoxemic Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. In The American Journal of Medicine (Vol. 129, Issue 11, pp. 1185–1193). Elsevier BV. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjmed.2016.06.023