Comparison of device-assisted physiotherapy and traditional physiotherapy on lung function in patients with primary ciliary dyskinesia

<bold>Objective:</bold> The primary aim of this study was to determine the effects of device-assisted physiotherapy compared with traditional physiotherapy on spirometry indices in patients with primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) through real-life experience. Method: A retrospective longitudinal cohort study was conducted on patients with PCD aged 6-18 years who had performed one of these methods: device-assisted (Group1) or traditional (Group2) chest physiotherapy. The patients charecteristics and spirometry results at baseline to the end of the study were recorded from the medical documents <bold>Results:</bold> One hundred twenty-four patients (Group1:54, Group2:70) were included in the study. The groups have no significant differences in age, diagnosed age, sex, BMI, BMI z-score, chronic airway colonization, frequency of pulmonary exacerbations per year, and bronchiectasis status. Baseline and last FEV1%, FEV1 z-score, FVC%, and FVC z-score were significantly higher in Group1 than Group2. Delta changes (from baseline to the end of the study) in FEV1% and FVC% were significantly better in Group 1 than in Group 2. The results of the PCD‐QOL questionnaires showed that children's social functioning and upper respiratory symptoms scores were significantly lower in Group 1 than in Group 2. However, the treatment burden did not significantly differ between the groups in each age group and for parents. <bold>Conclusion:</bold> The study showed that patients doing device-assisted physiotherapy had better respiratory functions. The type of physiotherapy did not cause a difference in treatment burden in patients with PCD.