Resting breathing instability as an assessment tool for dyspnea in COPD

2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K17642
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 53030:Respiratory medicine-related
• Research Institution: Nara Medical University
• Principal Investigator: Fujita Yukio 奈良県立医科大学, 医学部, 助教 (60571023)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2022-03-31
• Keywords: COPD / 呼吸波形解析 / 呼吸不規則性 / 呼吸困難 / 健康関連QOL / 増悪

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study aimed to investigate whether resting breathing instability during wakefulness was associated with dyspnea and whether breathing instability can be a novel predictor of clinical outcomes in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Breathing instability was evaluated with the coefficient of variation for breath-by-breath respiratory duration and tidal volume (VT). Breathing instability was not associated with age, body mass index, and pulmonary function variables. The coefficients of variation for VT were significantly higher in patients with dyspnea and coefficient of variation values were also correlated with several health-related quality of life domains. The exacerbation frequency was associated with the coefficient of variation for VT. Resting breathing pattern during wakefulness is a novel assessment tool for severity of dyspnea, which can be one of the predictors for exacerbation in patients with COPD.

Free Research Field

呼吸生理

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

呼吸パターンは個々に固有のものである。今回、COPD患者の呼吸不規則性を調査した。その結果、COPD患者において、不規則呼吸が呼吸困難や健康関連QOLと関連し、さらには増悪の予測因子になりえることがわかった。今回用いた呼吸波形解析は、客観的で非侵襲的な検査法である。そのため、今後、呼吸波形解析が日常診療に組み込まれ、呼吸の安定化がCOPD治療の新たな治療戦略になり得る可能性を秘めていると考える。