Summary Results of Spirovital Study of Chronic Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Patients
Are significant effects likely as a result of daily inhalation of activated oxygen by means of administration of Spirovital Therapy from Airnergy AG?
Dr. K. Erpenbach, H. Molitor, K. Visscher, Medical Therapy Centre, Erftstadt
BACKGROUND: in healthy subjects, Spirovital activated inhaled air leads to an improvement in the utilisation of the oxygen in inhaled air and to improved peak flow. Because of their worsening dyspnoea and the resulting lack of physical stamina, COPD patients often require very onerous oxygen therapy. The aim of this study was therefore to investigate whether use of Spirovital Airnergy in COPD patients can bring about an improvement in physical exercise capacity and an improvement in lung function parameters.
PATIENTS AND METHODS: 15 patients underwent a daily 30-minute period of inhalation using the Professional Plus for 4 weeks. On days 0 – 14 – 28 and 56, all patients were asked about their walking distance (in metres) and their ability to climb stairs (number of stairs) and lung function tests and serological tests (leukocytes, erythrocytes, Hb, Hct, platelets, CRP, electrophoresis) were performed. Blood pressure was measured daily before commencing inhalation.
RESULTS: over the 4-week course of Spirovital respiratory therapy, walking distance increased 35-fold (from 50 to 1766 m) and the ability to climb stairs more than doubled (from 12 to 29 stairs) in all patients. This effect was maintained even in the treatment-free period for a further 4 weeks. After three months without therapy, all patients had returned to their initial condition, however. FEV1/VC ratio improved over the 4-week treatment period by 8.6% (from 58% to 63%) but then fell back to the baseline level in the follow-up observation period. As regards the serological tests, the brevity of the treatment period allowed a reduction only in inflammatory activity (CRP) of 83% (from 35.9 mg/dl to 4.7 mg/dl). No changes in blood count were observed. As a secondary finding, normalisation of blood pressure was observed during respiratory therapy in all patients. None of the patients complained of exacerbation of their disease at any point during the follow-up observation period.
CONCLUSION: under Spirovital Airnergy respiratory therapy, COPD patients experience a marked improvement in their exercise capacity (walking distance, stair-climbing), an improvement in their lung function and a reduction in the inflammatory activity of the disease. None of the patients experienced exacerbation of the COPD during the follow-up observation period.