Abstract
Background:
The primary objective of the study was to determine whether home usage of warm humidification can potentially reduce the number of exacerbations in patients with a diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) stage II-IV. There have only been a few small studies evaluating the efficacy of warm air humidification in reducing the number of hospitalizations in this population.
Methods:
The study was conducted as an open label, non-randomized prospective trial, with use of a retrospective comparable control group. Patients with stage II to IV COPD were asked to participate in the study. A warm air humidifier was provided for home use as either a stand-alone unit, or in addition to their current long-term oxygen therapy (LTOT). Patients were followed for 1 year. Measurements taken at base, 1 month 3 month, 6month, 9 month, and 1 year time periods, included pulmonary function testing, hospitalizations, Steroid or antibiotic therapy, six minute walk test, and Quality of Life questionnaire. The study was reviewed and approved by a local IRB. All patients were consented and provisions of HIPAA were followed. Student's T test was applied for all continuous variables, Bonferroni adjustment not applied.
Results:
A total of 22 patients were enrolled into the study with a 45.5% (10 of 22) completion rate at 12 months. Pulmonary function test change after 12 months for kg/m2 and kg/m2/FVC were -0.035 L/s (P = .53) and -0.501 L/s (P = .043) respectively. Quality of life (QOL) measures differed at 6 months with an improved mean of 4.06 (P = .0005), to a worsened value of 1.79 (P = .07) at 1 year. Compared to a separate control group, annual hospitalizations decreased from 12 to 8 in the treatment group (P = -0.534), with yearly use of antibiotics, steroids, and self-treatments decreasing from 48 vs. 25 (P = .10), 40 vs. 23 (P = .13), 41 vs. 17 (P = .07) respectively. When the year prior to enrollment hospitalization rates and use of antibiotics and steroids were analyzed, the statistics yielded similar results.
Conclusions:
In this study, the daily use of warm humidification, statistically did not improve lung function or quality of life in those with stage II-IV COPD at 12 months. The device also lacked statistical significance in decreasing hospitalization, antibiotics, steroids, or use of self-treatments. Device or treatment tolerance was an issue and lead to a high dropout rate. Disclosures: None of the authors have any disclosures to report.
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