MedWire News: Long-term humidification therapy may help reduce the risk for exacerbations and improve lung function and quality of life in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), say researchers.
“Persistent airway inflammation with mucus retention in patients with chronic airway disorders such as COPD and bronchiectasis may lead to frequent exacerbations, reduced lung function, and poor quality of life,” explain Lata Jayaram (Middlemore Hospital, Auckland, New Zealand) and colleagues in the journal Respiratory Medicine.
They add: “Recently there has been increasing evidence that humidification therapy may increase mucociliary clearance, reduce mucus viscosity, and aid expectoration in airway diseases.”
To investigate whether humidification therapy has significant benefits for patients with chronic airway disorders, the researchers studied 63 patients with COPD and 45 with bronchiectasis who were randomly assigned to daily humidification therapy (n=60) or usual care (n=48) for 12 months.
Patients in the intervention group were instructed to use a device that delivered humidified air fully saturated at 37 °C at a flow rate of 20–25 l/min for at least 2 hours a day.
The participants underwent lung function, quality of life, exercise capacity, and airway inflammation assessments at baseline and after 12 months, and the number of exacerbations in both groups was recorded over the study period.
The researchers found that patients in the humidification therapy group had significantly fewer exacerbation days during the study period than those in the control group, at 18.2 compared with 33.5 days, respectively.
Patients assigned to humidification therapy also had a longer time to first exacerbation (52 versus 27 days) and a reduced exacerbation frequency (2.97/patient/year vs 3.63/patient/year) than controls.
Furthermore, patients in the humidification therapy group had significantly greater quality of life scores and better lung function at 3 and 12 months than those in the control group.
Jayaram and team conclude: “Long-term humidification therapy… resulted in significant improvements in exacerbation days, time to first exacerbation, lung function, and quality of life, in patients with COPD and bronchiectasis. The therapy was well-tolerated, had no related adverse events, and the majority of patients opted to continue with the treatment at the conclusion of the 12-month trial period.”
They add: “Further studies… are recommended to confirm and extend our results and to gain insight into underlying mechanisms of long-term humidification therapy in chronic airway disease.”
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