Impact of Device Settings and Spontaneous Breathing during IPV in CF Patients

Intrapulmonary Percussive Ventilation (IPV) is a ventilation technique that has been introduced for promoting airway clearance and for recruiting areas of lung in patients with restrictive and obstructive pulmonary diseases. Recently, a new transportable device providing noninvasive IPV has been proposed as an alternative to traditional chest physiotherapy for patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). Nevertheless, its clinical effectiveness has not been completely demonstrated yet and further investigations have to be carried out. The aim of this work was to investigate the functioning of the new proposed IPV system, evaluating the tolerance to this ventilation and assessing flow and pressure modulation when spontaneous breathing was superimposed