Observational studyInternational journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease2026
Pulmonary Rehabilitation with Airway Clearance Techniques Improves Mucus Hypersecretion and Clinical Outcomes in COPD: A Retrospective Study.
Observational study in International journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Objective: To evaluate the effects of a pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) program incorporating airway clearance techniques Active Cycle of Breathing Technique (ACBT) and Oscillatory Positive Expiratory Pressure (OPEP) on mucus hypersecretion, pulmonary function, and quality of life in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Methods: This single-center, retrospective observational study included 118 hospitalized patients with stable moderate COPD and sputum hypersecretion between April 2024 and July 2025. Patients received either PR combined with ACBT and OPEP (PR+ACBT/OPEP, n = 56) or conventional PR with basic breathing training (n = 62). Primary outcomes were sputum volume, sputum viscosity, and responder rate (≥20% viscosity reduction). Secondary outcomes included pulmonary function parameters, symptom burden assessed by the COPD Assessment Test (CAT) and modified Medical Research Council (mMRC) scale, and treatment adherence. Results: Baseline characteristics were comparable between groups. Adherence was high in both groups, and no serious adverse events were observed. At discharge, the PR+ACBT/OPEP group demonstrated significantly greater reductions in sputum volume (-6.8 mL; P < 0.001) and viscosity (-46 mPa·s; P < 0.001) than controls, with a higher responder rate (69.6% vs. 29.0%). Improvements in pulmonary function were more pronounced in the PR+ACBT/OPEP group, including FEV Conclusion: In this retrospective, single-center study, the integration of ACBT and OPEP into pulmonary rehabilitation was associated with improved mucus clearance, lung function parameters, and patient-reported outcomes in COPD patients with chronic sputum hypersecretion. These findings should be interpreted as exploratory and hypothesis-generating, supporting the potential role of airway clearance techniques within pulmonary rehabilitation and warranting confirmation in prospective, multicenter studies.
Indexed as
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.