Heart Failure and Disease

Heart Failure & Disease

Any condition that prevents normal physical activity can lead to inspiratory muscle weakness, such as heart conditions.

In patients with chronic heart failure, inspiratory muscle training, such as with the POWERbreathe Medic, has been shown to:

Improve exercise tolerance by 19%^2,3
Improve quality of life by 16%^2,3

Patients with chronic heart failure (CHF) have a restrictive pattern of lung function due to the presence of pulmonary hypertension. This lung 'stiffness' increases the load on the inspiratory muscles and makes a significant contribution to their dyspnoea. In addition, there is evidence of inspiratory muscle weakness that emerges as an independent predictor of prognosis in this group of patients¹. Two randomised controlled trials of IMT both reported significant improvements in dyspnoea, exercise tolerance (see figure 1), quality of life^2,3.

Fig.1 Improve exercise tolerance by 19% and quality of life by 16%^2,3

Because the cardiovascular strain of POWERbreathe training is very low, it is suitable for even the most physically compromised patients, and is particularly helpful in patients who are too ill for rehabilitation.

Resources:

Research:

Links to research papers, published in peer-reviewed, high quality scientific journals. As well as original studies, we have also included some articles that review IMT; these have been written by experts in this field of research.