EFFECT OF LOW-FLOW AND HIGH-FLOW OXYGEN DELIVERY ON EXERCISE TOLERANCE AND SENSATION OF DYSPNEA - A STUDY COMPARING THE TRANSTRACHEAL CATHETER AND NASAL PRONGS

Hypothesis: We hypothesized that high now transtracheal oxygen (HFTTO) will improve exercise tolerance as compared with low now transtracheal oxygen (LFTTO) and that transtracheal oxygen (TTO) will increase exercise tolerance with less dyspnea as compared with nasal prongs (NP) at equivalent oxygen saturation (SaO(2)). Patient selection: Ten subjects, six male and four female, who were already receiving TTO were recruited for the study. Study design: Each subject underwent a total of four modified progressive treadmill test's in a single-blind randomized fashion on two separate days. Two tests were performed with the patients receiving LFITO and HFTTO while the other two were performed with low- and high-now oxygen by NP. The flows were adjusted to provide equivalent oxygen saturations at rest for respective groups. Results: The mean+/-SD exercise distance with HFTTO (1,134+/-631 ft) was 2.5 times greater than with LFTTO (446+/-328 ft; p<0.006); and high-flow NP (HFNP [1207+/-763 ft]) was 2.38 times greater than with low-flow NP (LFNP[492+/-487 ft; p<0.005]). There was no significant difference in exercise distance and dyspnea scores with HFTTO as compared with HFNP and LPPTO versus LFNP. Conclusion: We conclude that the use of high-now oxygen via both transtracheal catheter and NP significantly increased exercise tolerance in our COPD patients when compared to low-now oxygen. Transtracheal oxygen did not increase maximum exercise tolerance with less dyspnea as compared with oxygen via NP at equivalent SaO(2).