Whole Body Vibration in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Effects of Whole Body Vibration Training in Severe Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Patients

The investigators designed the current study with the main objective of determining whether Whole Body Vibration Training (WBVT) alone improves muscular force and/or modifies the functional capacity parameters in severe Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) patients referred to a rehabilitation programme.

Inclusion Criteria:

• severe COPD defined as a post-bronchodilator forced expiratory volume at one second (FEV1)/ forced vital capacity (FVC) < 0.7 and FEV1 < 50% predicted,
• stable disease defined as no exacerbation,
• hospital admission or change in treatment in the previous 3 months.

Exclusion Criteria:

• other significant respiratory disease (bronchiectasis,
• lung fibrosis, asthma, etc),
• active smoking,
• severe cardiovascular,
• neurological, and/or metabolic pathology that could interfere with the results,
• total hip, knee or ankle arthroplasty,
• previous vitreous haemorrhage,
• severe alcoholism (> 80 g/day) and
• severe malnutrition (BMI < 19 Kg/m2) to reduce the risk of falling and dropouts.