Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Feb 28:33:101097.
doi: 10.1016/j.conctc.2023.101097. eCollection 2023 Jun.

Design of Lung Transplant Go (LTGO): A randomized controlled trial evaluating the efficacy of a telerehabilitation behavioral exercise intervention to improve physical activity, physical function, and blood pressure control after lung transplantation

Melissa L Vendetti  1 , Seol Ju Esther Moon  1 , Christopher C Imes  1 , Andrea Hergenroeder  2 , Frank Sciurba  3 , Elizabeth Lendermon  3 , Joseph Pilewski  3 , Dianxu Ren  4 , Bambang Parmanto  5 , Barbara Dewhirst  1 , Bryan Willey  1 , Kristen Jones  1 , Matthew R Morrell  6 , Pablo Sanchez  7 , Annette DeVito Dabbs  1
Affiliations

Design of Lung Transplant Go (LTGO): A randomized controlled trial evaluating the efficacy of a telerehabilitation behavioral exercise intervention to improve physical activity, physical function, and blood pressure control after lung transplantation

Melissa L Vendetti et al. Contemp Clin Trials Commun. .

Abstract

Background: Lung transplantation is an established treatment option for persons with advanced lung disease. After transplantation, lung function typically returns to near normal levels, however exercise capacity remains low due to chronic deconditioning, limited physical function, and inactive lifestyles which undermine the intended benefits of the highly selective, resource-intensive transplant procedure. Pulmonary rehabilitation is recommended to improve fitness and activity tolerance, however due to multiple barriers, lung transplant recipients either never participate, or fail to complete, pulmonary rehabilitation programs.

Purpose: To describe the design of Lung Transplant Go (LTGO), a trial modified for the remote environment based on recommendations to preserve trial integrity during COVID. The aims are to evaluate a behavioral exercise intervention to improve physical function, physical activity, and blood pressure control in lung transplant recipients conducted safely and effectively using a telerehabilitation (telerehab) platform, and to explore the role of potential mediators and moderators of the relationship between LTGO and outcomes.

Methods: Single-site, 2-group randomized controlled trial with lung transplant recipients randomized 1:1 to either the LTGO intervention (a 2-phased, supervised, telerehab behavioral exercise program), or to enhanced usual care (activity tracking and monthly newsletters). All study activities, including intervention delivery, recruitment, consenting, assessment, and data collection, will be performed remotely.

Conclusion: If efficacious, this fully scalable and replicable telerehab intervention could be efficiently translated to reach large numbers of lung recipients to improve and sustain self-management of exercise habits by overcoming barriers to participation in existing, in-person pulmonary rehabilitation programs.

Keywords: Behavior change techniques; Lung transplant; Randomized controlled trial; Self-monitoring; Telerehabilitation.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Conceptual framework.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Study process: Recruitment, screening, enrollment, randomization, and assessment.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Chambers D.C., Perch M., Zuckermann A., et al. The international thoracic organ transplant registry of the international society for heart and lung transplantation: thirty-eighth adult lung transplantation report — 2021; focus on recipient characteristics. J. Heart Lung Transplant. 2021;40(10):1060–1072. doi: 10.1016/j.healun.2021.07.021. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Singer J.P., Singer L.G. Quality of life in lung transplantation. Semin. Respir. Crit. Care Med. 2013;34(3):421–430. doi: 10.1055/s-0033-1348470. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Valapour M., Lehr C.J., Skeans M.A., et al. OPTN/SRTR 2019 annual data report: lung. Am. J. Transplant. 2021-02-01 2021;21(S2):441–520. doi: 10.1111/ajt.16495. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Wickerson L., Mathur S., Singer L.G., Brooks D. Physical activity levels early after lung transplantation. Phys. Ther. 2015;95(4):517–525. doi: 10.2522/ptj.20140173. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Layton A.M., Armstrong H.F., Baldwin M.R., et al. Frailty and maximal exercise capacity in adult lung transplant candidates. Respir. Med. 2017;131:70–76. doi: 10.1016/j.rmed.2017.08.010. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources