Еndothelial dysfunction in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: feasibility of non-medicamental treatment (literature review and personal experience)

Abstract

The aim of the work was to study the feasibility of the use of non-medicamental factors for the correction of endothelial dysfunction in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Results. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is considered as a systemic disease, one of the pathogenetic components of which is endothelial dysfunction (ED), which contributes to the development of comorbid cardiovascular pathology. At the same time, the basic treatment of patients with COPD includes drugs that may adversely influence it, and some medicines for the cardiac pathology treatment can increase the bronchial obstruction. Therefore, a question of non-medicamental methods of ED correction is actual, especially beyond the acute period of the disease. Methods of hardware physiotherapy, including ozone therapy, singlet oxygen therapy and its combination with magnetic therapy, low-intensity laser radiation, ultrasound therapy, a combination of laser therapy with balneotherapy, are widely employed. These methods have antioxidant, bronchodilating and anti-inflammatory effects, promote improvement of hemodynamics, as well as rheological properties of blood and microcirculation. Interval hypoxic therapy is also used, because in response to the hypoxic stimulation, the mechanisms of the respiratory system regulation, gas exchange and blood circulation are activated. It is also promising to use haloaerosoltherapy (HAT), which due to the increase of bronchs drainage function and sanitizing effect leads to the inhibition of local inflammation, improves ventilation and gas exchange, and reduces the intensity of oxidative stress, which promotes decrease of systemic inflammation and ED, associated with it. Particularly, this effect is manifested by lowering of edothelin-1 level and the expression of adhesion molecules by lymphocytes (CD54+). Conclusions. The analysis shows that the inclusion of methods with non-medicamental influence on the endothelium can significantly increase the effectiveness of complex treatment of patients with COPD, without increasing the medicinal load on the organism, which helps to avoid undesirable side effects. The use of HAT in the rehabilitation treatment of COPD patients contributes not only to decreasing the activity of local and systemic inflammatory processes, but also is accompanied by a certain correction of ED. However, specific recommendations for the use of certain non-medicamental effects in the complex rehabilitation treatment of patients with COPD, taking into account the presence of ED, have not been developed.

Keywords

• chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
• endothelial dysfunction
• haloaerosoltherapy