Response to one-legged cycling in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Response to one-legged cycling in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis
IRAS ID
161380
Contact name
Rachael Evans
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust
Research summary
Pulmonary Rehabilitation (PR) is an evidence-based structured exercise and education programme for patients with chronic respiratory diseases which leads to a reduction in dyspnoea, clinically meaningful improvements in both exercise performance and health-related quality of life, and a reduction in healthcare utilisation. Recent NICE guidelines for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), a condition that results in irreversible scarring of the lung and progressive breathlessness, suggested referral for PR at diagnosis. However, a small prospective trial suggested patients with IPF did less well with PR than patients with non-IPF interstitial lung disease (ILD). A different exercise training strategy may therefore be needed.
Patients with IPF have a ventilatory limitation (their lung function cannot meet the demands of exercise to exercise), similar to patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). Two randomised controlled trials (RCTs)of exercise training in COPD have shown that by reducing the exercising muscle volume by cycling with one leg at a time (one legged cycling [OLC]) results in a greater muscle-specific training load and greater improvements in exercise performance (maximal and endurance) compared to traditional two-legged cycling. Prior to these studies two preliminary experiments were performed to assess whether OLC showed potential in COPD.
The proposed study will perform the latter two experiments in an exercise laboratory to assess whether one-legged cycling is a potentially beneficial training strategy for patients with IPF. The first experiment will assess the difference between the maximum exercise capacity (peak oxygen uptake) during an incremental one-legged and two-legged cycle ergometer test (for OLC to be beneficial as a training strategy the ratio would have to be >0.7 OLC:TLC). The second experiment will compare the duration on an endurance test at the same power between one and two-legged cycling (for OLC to be beneficial the duration would be >twice during the one-legged test).REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - South Yorkshire Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/YH/1152
Date of REC Opinion
9 Sep 2014
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion