Russian Current and Expiratory Muscle Training in COPD Patients

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) remains the fourth leading cause of chronic morbidity and mortality at the global level, and it represents a major problem for public health. It is known that expiratory muscles are usually activated at the end of expiration in COPD patients during rest, or weight-bearing breathing to compensate weakness of inspiratory muscle and lung hyperinflation by time, expiratory muscle fatigue and weakness take place and more lung deterioration affecting COPD patient functional capacity occur. The efficacy of pulmonary rehabilitation on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients has been demonstrated in many studies. Although pulmonary rehabilitation is a multi-dimensional therapy, respiratory muscle training and strengthening appears to be its most effective component, expiratory muscle training improves functional exercise capacity as assessed by timed walking distance, and decreases dyspnea during daily living activities, resulting in a better health-related quality of life in patients with COPD. Russian current is a medium frequency current, which was developed for improving muscle strength. There is limited literature on the effect of Russian current in improving strength of respiratory muscles. Thus, a need arises which addresses this perspective for new management strategies