Respiratory failure & ventilation
Does inspiratory muscle training affect expiratory muscle thickness in respiratory intensive care patients? A pilot randomized controlled study
Authors' conclusion
Post-extubation IMT may improve not only inspiratory but also expiratory muscle strength and abdominal wall thickness.
Study context
- Population
- Post-extubation respiratory intensive care patientsplus 10 healthy controls
- Participants
- 20 patients
- Comparison
- IMT + conventional physiotherapy (CP) vs CP alone for five days
- Healthy controlsn = 10
- Primary endpoint
- Expiratory (abdominal) muscle thickness by ultrasound (EOA, IOA, transversus abdominis (TRA), RA)
Methodological detailssingle-blind, pilot
- Single-blind
- Pilot
Primary result
As reported in the abstract
Abdominal muscle thickness and respiratory muscle strength after intervention · five days
- Only IMT group showed significant increases in maximum expiratory pressure (MEP), MEP% predicted, IOA and rectus abdominis (RA) muscle thickness
- p < 0.05
- IMT group showed significantly greater improvements in maximum inspiratory pressure (MIP), MEP, IOA and RA muscle thickness vs CP
- p < 0.05
Further findings
Baseline comparison with healthy controls
- Healthy controls had significantly higher MIP, MIP% predicted, MEP, MEP% predicted and RA muscle thickness than both patient groups
- P < 0.05
MIP
- Both IMT and CP groups showed significant improvements in MIP
- P < 0.05
Original publication
Does inspiratory muscle training affect expiratory muscle thickness in respiratory intensive care patients? A pilot randomized controlled study. J Crit Care. Published 30 May 2025. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →