Doing pulmonary rehabilitation through telemedicine (video sessions) for three months can greatly improve breathing in children with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), according to a recent study published in the Journal of Modern Rehabilitation.
People with DMD experience progressive muscle weakness that affects all the muscles in the body, including those used for breathing. Pulmonary rehabilitation — an exercise and education program that helps patients strengthen their breathing muscles — is an important part of DMD management.
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The study included 67 boys age 5 to 12. Every 15 days, doctors taught the boys and their parents how to do breathing exercises through video sessions.
The boys learned three types of breathing exercises:
- Forced inspiration: This involves taking the biggest breath possible, holding it for 5 seconds and then breathing out.
- Glossopharyngeal breathing: This involves taking small gulps of air and pushing the air to the back of their throat using mouth muscles.
- Forced expiration: This involves blowing into a balloon over and over to practice breathing out with force.
The boys’ lung function was recorded before and after the program to measure changes in breathing strength.
After three months of pulmonary exercises taught by video conferencing, the researchers saw significant improvements in two important breathing measures: forced vital capacity (FVC) and forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1). FVC measures how much air you can forcefully breathe out after taking a deep breath and FEV1 measures how much air you can breathe out in one second.
The study also found that the program was more effective in younger children. This implies “that pulmonary rehabilitation should be started as early as possible in patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy,” the researchers said.
Other research has also shown that rehabilitation through telemedicine can be just as effective as in-person therapy for many conditions. Providing therapies in a home environment may make it easier for children and families to follow their doctor’s advice, the researchers said.
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