AIM: The purpose of our study is to collate the available research articles considering the effectiveness of inspiratory muscle training (IMT) on exercise tolerance in patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and present them in a clear and comprehensive overview. METHOD: Electronic and manual searches were performed to obtain studies on IMT conducted on COPD patients. Articles that fulfilled our inclusion and exclusion criteria were identified. Only studies that measured exercise tolerance in the form of 6-minute walk test (6MWT) were included. Quality assessment of the individual studies was carried out. Results were collated, tabulated and compared descriptively. RESULTS: In the final eight studies, six were randomized controlled trials (RCT). Out of these, three were double blind RCT. The remaining two were experimental trials without control groups. Four studies had high methodological quality, two had moderate while two had low methodological quality. All studies except one, showed significant improvement in 6MWT. CONCLUSION: When at least 30% Plmax load was delivered, IMT was found to be able to increase the exercise tolerance of stage II to III COPD patients, shown by the 6MWT. Increase in inspiratory muscle strength and endurance, improvements in dyspnea and health related quality of life (HRQOL) have also been suggested in some studies.

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