Therapeutic Considerations in Respiratory Muscle Function

¹ Program Director, Pulmonary Medicine, Hines V.A. Hospital, Hines, IL; Professor of Medicine and Physiology, Loyola University of Chicago, The Stritch School of Medicine, Maywood, IL

Inspiratory muscle function is impaired in many patients with severe COPD. This functional impairment often leads to hypercapnic respiratory failure via inspiratory muscle fatigue. Factors responsible for this functional impairment are: (1) an excessive mechanical load (high resistance and low compliance) for the inspiratory muscles to overcome; (2) the low, flat configuration of the diaphragm owing to lung hyperinflation; (3) reduced inspiratory muscle blood flow relative to the increased respiratory work requirement; and (4) tachypnea which increases the duty cycle (T₁/T_tot) for inspiratory muscles, increases hyperinflation, wastes ventilation, and otherwise causes deterioration of gas exchange. Therapy is directed toward improving inspiratory muscle function and has three strategic goals: (1) to reduce the load imposed on the inspiratory muscles and reduce their mechanical disadvantage; (2) to improve the contractile characteristics of the inspiratory muscles; and (3) if goals 1 and 2 cannot be attained otherwise, to rest the inspiratory muscles using mechanical ventilation. Inspiratory muscle training offers promise as a means of preventing hypercapnic respiratory failure. Available data suggest that some COPD patients benefit from it. To be determined are which patients will benefit from it and which will not, as well as which training regimens are most effective.