Acute effects of expiratory positive pressure on autonomic cardiac modulation during spontaneous and slow deep breathing in COPD patients

AIMto evaluate the acute effects of expiratory positive airway pressure on cardiac autonomic modulation in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients during spontaneous breathing and slow deep breathing. METHODS17 patients were evaluated. The R-R intervals were collected (Polar® S810i) during spontaneous breathing (10 minutes) and slow deep breathing (4 minutes), with and without 5 cmH2O expiratory positive airway pressure. Stable signals were analyzed by Kubios®. Heart rate variability indices were computed in time domain and in frequency domain. RESULTSExpiratory positive airway pressure application affected low frequency (spontaneous breathing: 62.5±4.1 vs slow deep breathing: 28.2±4.2, p