TY - JOUR T1 - The effects of ELTGOL on mucociliary clearance in patients with COPD JF - European Respiratory Review JO - EUROPEAN RESPIRATORY REVIEW SP - 192 LP - 193 DO - 10.1183/09059180.00010120 VL - 15 IS - 101 AU - JocimarA. Martins AU - ArmèleD. Andrade AU - RodrigoS. Assis AU - Rovilson Lara AU - VerônicaF. Parreira Y1 - 2006/12/01 UR - http://err.ersjournals.com/content/15/101/192.abstract N2 - Excessive tracheobronchial secretion is a common complication of chronic obstruction pulmonary disease (COPD) and its presence is associated with lower survival, greater hospitalization and death. Slow expiration with the glottis open in a lateral posture (ELTGOL) is a chest physiotherapy procedure for the removal of lung secretions. Studies which have assessed ELTGOL through pulmonary scintigraphy were not found [1]. The aim this study was to evaluate the effects of ELTGOL on the mucociliary clearance in patients with COPD. Twelve patients with COPD aged 45 to 75 years were studied. After inhaling 20 mCi of 99mTc-DTPA [2], six posterior static scintigraphy images were taken in intervals of 0, 20, 40, 60, 80 and 120 minutes (figure 1⇓). The study was carried out in two stages (control and experimental) in a randomized order with a minimum interval of one week between the stages. In the experimental stage, ELTGOL was carried out after the first image. The right lung was studied, comparing the percentage of retention [3] of radioactive aerosol obtained during the control stage with the experimental condition, for each interval studied. The study was approved by the local ethics committee and all patients gave their written consent participate. The t test was used for data analysis with a significance level of α<0.05. As shown in figure 2⇓, significant differences between groups were found between all time intervals. The present results showed the ELTGOL significantly increased the mucociliary clearance suggesting that ELTGOL is an effective technique to improve secretion removal in patients with COPD. ER -