Short-term Effects of Supplemental Oxygen in Patients With IPF
Medical air · Not specified
About this trial
Although exercise-induced desaturation is frequently observed in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) short-term effects of supplemental oxygen during walking have not been investigated yet. Given, that walking ability is the most important activity of daily life, the aim of our study is to investigate the effects of supplemental oxygen on endurance walking capacity in hypoxemic IPF patients. In this study patients will perform 3 endurance shuttle walk tests (ESWTs) at 85% of their individual peak performance using medical air (=compressed room air, 2 liters/minute), 2 liters/minute oxygen, 4 liters/minute Oxygen in a double-blinded fashion and random order. Since there are only limited pharmacological treatment options for IPF patients, this study may help to provide novel information about the short-term effects of supplemental oxygen. Furthermore it may help to investigate possibilities to optimize oxygen therapy in order to facilitate patients´ participation in activities of daily life and not at least to improve patients´ quality of life.