Ambulatory oxygen rarely helps in COPD

TORONTO, Aug. 16 (UPI) -- Ambulatory oxygen in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, improves exercise, but not quality-of-life, a Canadian study found.

The findings "suggest serious problems with the indiscriminate use of oxygen to relieve day-to-day dyspnea -- shortness of breath -- in patients with COPD without resting hypoxemia -- an abnormal deficiency in the concentration of oxygen in arterial blood," lead author Roger S. Goldstein of the West Park Healthcare Centre in Toronto, said in a statement.

For many patients, a diagnosis of COPD comes with a prescription for ambulatory oxygen, even when they do not meet the standard criteria for long-term oxygen treatment, said Goldstein.

The researchers conducted a series of double-blind trials of 27 COPD patients who did not have resting hypoxemia, using either oxygen or compressed air as a placebo. As a group, the patients on oxygen showed improvement in the number of steps taken in the walk test, but no improvement in their dyspnea scores or on their questionnaires, reported the study in the the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.