Does lung volume exercises twice a day
help boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy?
(soft music)
That's a great question, Duchenne muscular dystrophy
is a neuromuscular condition that is associated with
weakening of the muscles including the breathing muscles.
This can make it hard to take deep breaths
and also increases risk of pneumonia.
Our study looked at lung volume recruitment exercises
or breathing exercises that help somebody
to stack breaths one on top of another
to get a really deep breath in.
We hope that this exercise use twice daily
over a two-year period would slow
the decline in lung function.
We conducted the study at nine centers across Canada,
with CHEO being the lead site
and we looked at differences in
lung function over two-year period.
Half of the boys in the study were assigned
to use lung volume recruitment exercises twice a day,
the other half used regular care.
What we found was that over a two-year period
there was no real difference between those who use
the lung volume recruitment exercises
and those who didn't in terms of how quickly
their lung function declined.
What this means is that in individuals
who have relatively preserved lung function
and relatively normal lung function
the burden associated with doing this
therapy twice a day may not be as valuable for them.
Certainly, we know in those with more advanced disease -
this is a very useful therapy,
but we probably don't need to start so early.