OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether inspiratory muscle training would contribute to the improvement of exercise capacity, dyspnea perception and respiratory functions in lung transplantation candidates. DESIGN: Prospective randomized controlled trial. SETTING: Pulmonary rehabilitation center. SUBJECTS: A total of 34 patients with severe lung disease requiring lung transplantation were randomly allocated to either pulmonary rehabilitation plus inspiratory muscle training group (PR+IMT group, n = 17) or pulmonary rehabilitation group (PR group, n = 17) before any lung transplantation operation. METHODS: All patients underwent supervised pulmonary rehabilitation program on two days per week for three months. The PR+IMT group received inspiratory muscle training in addition to the standard pulmonary rehabilitation program. The 6-minute walk test, maximal inspiratory pressure, modified Medical Research Concile dyspnea scores and spirometric parameters were measured for each patient. RESULTS: The PR+IMT group had statistically significantly increased in walking distance (100 m, p = 0.03), maximum inspiratory pressure (26 cmH2O, p = 0.001) and alveolar volume ratio of carbonmonoxide diffusion capacity (9%, p = 0.02) than PR group. Although both groups demonstrated a statistically significant decrease in the dyspnea score, no significant differences were found between the groups (p = 0.075). There was no change in spirometric variables in both groups. CONCLUSION: A greater increase in exercise capacity was observed in the PR+IMT group. Our study showed that inspiratory muscle training improved exercise capacity even further and increased the benefits provided by pulmonary rehabilitation.

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