Downhill Walking Training in COPD

Catholic University (KU) of Leuven

Status: Unknown

Conditions: Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive

Treatments: Other: Conventional walking training; Other: Downhill walking training

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT02113748

ML10278

Details and patient eligibility

About

This randomized control trial will investigate whether a modality that generates more contractile muscle fatigue with lower ventilatory requirements render better results after a 12-week exercise training program in subjects with COPD.

Subjects will be randomized to either exercise in a training program including downhill walking or to exercise in a training program including conventional walking.

Enrollment: 42 estimated patients

Sex: All

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Patients with a primary diagnosis of COPD according to internationally accepted guidelines
• Patients referred to the outpatient PR program of Gasthuisberg University Hospital(Leuven, Belgium)

Exclusion criteria

• Any underlying disease or musculoskeletal limitation that could impair the ability to perform any of the exercise training modalities
• Absence of exacerbations in the previous month before entering the present study
• Patients included on the waiting list for lung transplantation

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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42 participants in 2 patient groups

Downhill walking training

Experimental group

Description:

Exercise training including treadmill walking with a negative inclination.

Treatment:

Other: Downhill walking training

Conventional walking training

Active Comparator group

Description:

Exercise training including treadmill walking without inclination. Possible to progress training intensity with positive inclinations.

Treatment:

Other: Conventional walking training