[Possibilities of normobaric hypoxic training in rehabilitation of patients with chronic bronchitis]

To provide evidence for the potentialities of normobaric hypoxic training (NHT), oxygen cascades from the lung to tissues and responses to hypoxic and hypercapnic stimuli were analyzed in chronic bronchitis patients with Stages 1, 2, and respiratory failure. Since at Stages 2 and 3, compensatory responses are substantially decreased, there is arterial, and occasionally, venous hypoxemia, NHT is contraindicated in these patients. Compensatory responses are preserved only during early stages 0 and 1 respiratory failure, showing it expedient to employ NHT. NHT regimens (as many as 20 sessions) used in these patients improved the patients' condition and physical activity, normalized ventilation function. However, the concurrent diseases exacerbated in some cases. Medical monitoring is needed when the NHT regimen is used.