Pulmonary & Respiratory Medicine

The Feasibility of Recording Speech Breathing Patterns before and after Pulmonary Rehabilitation in an Out-Patient Environment

Abstract

Rokhsaneh Tehrany, Anne Bruton and Anna Barney

This study aimed to determine the feasibility of recording speech breathing patterns before and after a six week Pulmonary Rehabilitation programme (PR) for patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and bronchiectasis. Fourteen patients with COPD (age 69 ± 9.64) and 6 patients with bronchiectasis (age 71 ± 6.15) were recruited from a respiratory outpatients department, and breathing patterns were recorded using Respiratory Inductive Plethysmography (RIP) during periods of quiet breathing, reading, counting and conversational speech, before and after a six week PR programme. Nine parameters were extracted from the recorded RIP signals: respiratory rate (bpm), inspiration and expiration time (s), inspiration and expiration magnitude (arbitrary units representing volume) and the regional percentage contributions of the ribcage and abdomen during inspiration and expiration. Clinical data, modified Borg scores, and Incremental Shuttle Walk Test (ISWT) data were retrieved from medical notes. Functional exercise capacity (ISWT) significantly improved following PR by 89 m for the group (t=-4.11, df=16, p=0.00). No clinically or statistically significant changes in breathlessness (Borg), or speech breathing parameters, were detected following PR during any of the speech tasks. This study has demonstrated the feasibility of collecting speech breathing pattern data outside laboratory conditions. No firm conclusions can be drawn from the findings because of the uncontrolled nature of the study. It is therefore too soon to know if speech breathing patterns will be a useful tool for the remote monitoring of respiratory health in future.