Home exercise training with non-invasive ventilation in thoracic restrictive respiratory disorders: A randomised study

We assessed the effects of exercise training and non-invasive ventilation (NIV) during exercise in patients with restrictive disorders.Sixteen patients underwent an 8-week home-based cycle exercise program. Nine patients exercised with and seven without NIV. Before and after training, evaluations included incremental and constant-load cycling tests, a 6-min walking test and the Chronic Respiratory Questionnaire (CRQ).For the whole group, training increased walking distance (+22 ± 35 m), maximal cycling power output (+5 ± 9 W), cycling endurance (+75 ± 94%) and CRQ score (+10 ± 13 pts). These changes did not differ between patients training with or without NIV. However, in acute NIV responders [Borel, J.C., Wuyam, B., Chouri-Pontarollo, N., Deschaux, C., Levy, P., Pepin, J.L., 2008. During exercise non-invasive ventilation in chronic restrictive respiratory failure. Respir. Med. 102, 711–719], training with NIV induced greater improvement in walking distance and CRQ score.We concluded that in patients with restrictive disorders (i) exercise training including NIV is feasible at home, (ii) whatever the modalities, exercise training induces significant benefits in exercise tolerance and quality of life, and (iii) in acute NIV responders, chronic use of NIV during exercise may lead to synergetic effects compared to traditional training.