Eccentric cycling in COPD, Version 1.2
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Physiological responses to Eccentric cycling for patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and healthy older adults
IRAS ID
214536
Contact name
Martin Lindley
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Loughborough University
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Breathlessness presents a major barrier to exercise in patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary disease (COPD) and may prevent them accessing or achieving full benefit from a rehabilitation programme. Eccentric exercise, contraction of a muscle as it lengthens, has many potential training benefits. For a given muscle workload, eccentric exercise results in lower energy demand and oxygen consumption and therefore puts less strain on the heart and lungs whilst allowing greater muscle work. Consequently this type of exercise may be ideally suited for patients with lung disease.
There has been some previous interest in eccentric exercise as a training modality in chronic disease with encouraging results. However as yet, studies of eccentric exercise in COPD have been limited to small feasibility studies with very little published data. More rigorous understanding of the responses to eccentric exercise in patients with COPD is required before the widespread use of eccentric exercise in pulmonary rehabilitation can be recommended.
Using a bike able to switch between concentric and eccentric modes we will compare the physiological responses (including oxygen consumption, heart rate, perceived effort, blood markers of muscle damage and muscle metabolic markers) to eccentric and concentric exercise in patients with COPD and in healthy older adults. In eccentric mode, the pedals of the bike are rotated backwards by a motor and the subject must resist the movement of the pedals. The long term plan is for a formal training study which will be designed on the basis of the results from this acute study.
REC name
East Midlands - Leicester South Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/EM/0227
Date of REC Opinion
28 Jul 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion