Trial reportThorax2023
Brain activity measured by functional brain imaging predicts breathlessness improvement during pulmonary rehabilitation.
Trial report in Thorax, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to 2 registered trials, which are not on this map. Cited by 10 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Understanding the Importance of Plasticity in the Brain Mechanisms of Dyspnoea Perception
Breathlessness Patterns in Patients With Cancer, COPD and Heart Failure: an fMRI Feasibility Study
Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 15 citations in OpenAlex.
- Trial
- Resting-state fMRI using hidden Markov models reveals abnormal dynamic brain functional states in asthma.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Brain structural changes in COPD patients with cognitive impairment.Journal of neurology · 2026Review
- Effective Connectivity and Clinical Correlates in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.International journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease · 2026Article
- Artificial Intelligence for the Identification of Vascular Imaging Biomarkers in COPD: Redefining Phenotypes and Enabling Precision Care.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- A narrative review of the use of PROMs and machine learning to impact value-based clinical decision-making.BMC medical informatics and decision making · 2025Review
- D-cycloserine effects on COPD and depression in a murine experimental model.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2025Article
- Abnormal Brain Functional Connectivity in Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and Correlations with Clinical and Cognitive Parameters.International journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease · 2025Article
- Translating knowledge on placebo and nocebo effects into clinical practice.Pain reports · 2024Article
- Efficacy and cerebral mechanisms of acupuncture for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: study protocol for a multicenter, randomized controlled neuroimaging trial.Frontiers in neurology · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundChronic breathlessness in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is effectively treated with pulmonary rehabilitation. However, baseline patient characteristics predicting improvements in breathlessness are unknown. This knowledge may provide better understanding of the mechanisms engaged in treating breathlessness and help to individualise therapy. Increasing evidence supports the role of expectation (ie, placebo and nocebo effects) in breathlessness perception. In this study, we tested functional brain imaging markers of breathlessness expectation as predictors of therapeutic response to pulmonary rehabilitation, and asked whether D-cycloserine, a brain-active drug known to influence expectation mechanisms, modulated any predictive model.
methodsData from 71 participants with mild-to-moderate COPD recruited to a randomised double-blind controlled experimental medicine study of D-cycloserine given during pulmonary rehabilitation were analysed (ID: NCT01985750). Baseline variables, including brain-activity, self-report questionnaires responses, clinical measures of respiratory function and drug allocation were used to train machine-learning models to predict the outcome, a minimally clinically relevant change in the Dyspnoea-12 score.
resultsOnly models that included brain imaging markers of breathlessness-expectation successfully predicted improvements in Dyspnoea-12 score (sensitivity 0.88, specificity 0.77). D-cycloserine was independently associated with breathlessness improvement. Models that included only questionnaires and clinical measures did not predict outcome (sensitivity 0.68, specificity 0.2).
conclusionsBrain activity to breathlessness related cues is a strong predictor of clinical improvement in breathlessness over pulmonary rehabilitation. This implies that expectation is key in breathlessness perception. Manipulation of the brain's expectation pathways (either pharmacological or non-pharmacological) therefore merits further testing in the treatment of chronic breathlessness.
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Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.