Discussion
This pilot study in non cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis, found
that pulmonary rehabilitation in addition to regular chest
physiotherapy led to significant improvement in exercise
capacity and health related quality of life as compared to
patients practicing regular chest physiotherapy alone, and
this was maintained at 12 weeks after the intervention
ended. However, this did not result in any significant
improvement in the secondary outcome measures-FEV1,
FVC, PImax, PEmax or inflammatory markers including
WCC, CRP and ESR. Based on a previous study by Newall
et al.,14 our study was adequately powered to detect
a change in exercise capacity.