[Telemonitoring of arm ergometric training in COPD patients. A pilot study]

Regular moderate physical activity in COPD reduces morbidity and improves life expectancy. Many programmes often fail after rehabilitation because regular training at home, possibly caused by a lack of motivation, is not maintained, the performance parameters then decline to the prerehabilitation levels. For cost reasons, a simple procedure is required to measure the training times in the home environment with a daily transmission of telemetric data so that, in the case of decline, advice and assistance can be provided.

How long is the actual daily training time monitored by telemetry of COPD patients if a target of 20 minutes per day is prescribed by the doctor? Is there a correlation between physical activity at home and the training period?

We used a device for training the upper extremities with a GSM data transmission module for the transfer of the training times. The physical activity before an exacerbation of COPD and the willingness to modify the training behaviour were determined by questionnaires. 13 patients with COPD (age 69 +/- 9 years, FEV1 48.6 +/- 23.9 %) were investigated prospectively for 6 days under stationary conditions.

The mean training period (target 20 min/day) was 16.1 +/- 11.7 min/day. The frequency of physical activity per week correlated with the daily ergometry training period in the clinic (r = 0.59).

Training supervised by telemonitoring represents a useful way to objectively obtain training times. Ergometric training in combination with online transmission (telemetric monitoring) and regular phone calls could be an inexpensive method to increase physical activity.