A Functional Respiratory Imaging Approach to the Effect of an Oscillating Positive Expiratory Pressure Device in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Glenn Leemans, Dennis Belmans, Cedric Van Holsbeke, Vladimir Kushnarev, Jason Sugget, Kris Ides, Dirk Vissers, Wilfried De Backer

Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) often suffer from chronic bronchitis, which is characterized by an accumulation of mucus in their airways. This excessive mucus not only interferes in patients’ daily life activities, but may also promote the development of disease complications and exacerbations. Aerobika® is a hand-held device designed to aid in the mucus clearance by generating positive pressure pulses in the airways. This study involved 10 COPD patients and aimed to test whether the association of the Aerobika device to standard medication could improve patients’ respiratory capacity.

Overall, the results of this study show that Aerobika can, indeed, increase lungs’ ventilation, by expanding the volume available for the air passage. Moreover, these changes were accompanied by a shift in the way that the air is distributed throughout the different pulmonary regions, which in turn results in an increase in the patients’ standard medication delivery at the lung level.

International Journal of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease 2020:15 1261–1268


Categorised in: / September 2, 2020 9:43 am / Published by