Effect of inspiratory muscle training on pulmonary functions, physical capacity, and quality of life: a randomized controlled trial in β-thalassemia children

Background.The respiratory system is one of the most negatively affected systems by -thalassemia major-associated complications.Compared to normal healthy peers, -thalassemia major (TM) children's values of pulmonary function tests are low, hence pulmonary dysfunctions are present in 80% of TM children.The causes of pulmonary dysfunctions in TM children are systemic iron overload resulting from repeated or regular blood transfusion.These children also usually report poor quality of life (QoL), exercise intolerance, and low physical capacity.Objectives.This study is a randomized controlled study.The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of 12-week inspiratory muscle training (IMT) on TM children's pulmonary functions, QoL, and physical capacity (tested via a six-minute walk test (SMWT)).Material and methods.40 TM children of both genders were randomly and equally assigned into two groups; IMT group or controlled non-trained TM children group.Every group contained 20 TM children.Two supervised IMT sessions were applied daily for six days per week via a threshold Respironics Threshold IMT device.Besides the evaluation of forced expiratory volume at the first second of TM children's expiration (FEV 1 ) and SMWT, TM children's forced vital capacity (FVC), child and parent reports of Pediatrics' Quality of Life Inventory, maximal inspiratory pressure (MIP), and FEV 1 /FVC ratio were assessed.Results.A significant improvement was reported after executing a comparison between the pre-and post-values of TM children's outcomes within the IMT group only.Conclusions.12-week IMT significantly improves TM children's poor QoL, MIP, low physical capacity, and deteriorated pulmonary functions (FVC, FEV 1 , and FEV 1 /FVC ratio).