Immediate Effect of Diaphragmatic Myofascial Release in COPD Patient

Diaphragmatic myofascial release techniques are manipulative treatments that attempts to release tension in the fascia in which pressure is applied to muscle and fascia. Though these techniques are widely used in clinical practice, there is hardly any study which determined the immediate effect of diaphragmatic myofascial release techniques on Peak Expiratory Flow Rate and dyspnea in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary disease. Hence this study was designed with the same objective.

Sixty COPD patients were selected by convenient sampling. Outcome measures used were Peak Flow Meter, Modified Borg Scale. Their pre intervention peak expiratory flow rate and dyspnea was measured. After recording pre-intervention reading diaphragmatic myofascial release was given with 2 sets of 10 repetitions with one-minute interval between them. Then post-intervention outcome readings were recorded.

The data was analyzed using student's t-test p<0.001. Pre-intervention score for peak expiratory flow rate showed average (±SD) 96.5±36.72 and for Modified Borg Scale score it was 3.68 ± 0.812856. Post intervention data collected showed the average (±SD) of 136± 56.99 for Peak Expiratory Flow Rate and 1.78 ± 0.80 for Modified Borg Scale.

Study concluded that diaphragmatic myofascial release significantly improves peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) (p<0.001) and reduces dyspnea in COPD patients.