Abstract: Objective To study the effects of threshold training of respiratory muscles on respiratory muscle function and pulmonary infection after stroke with meta-analysis. Methods The randomized controlled trials about threshold training of respiratory muscles in stroke patients in Cochrane Library, PubMed, Medline, Embase, OVID, Chinese Biomedical Database, WanFang database and CNKI full-text database from January, 2005 to June, 2015 were systematically searched. Literatures were evaluated and extracted by two researchers. Results Four studies were included, with a total of 167 cases, 84 cases in the intervention group (threshold training of respiratory muscles) and 83 cases in the control group. Compared with the control group, the intervention might improve the respiratory muscle strength (for maximum inspired pressure, MD=9.46, 95% CI=4.61~14.32, P<0.001; for maximum expired pressure, MD=9.44, 95% CI=2.68~16.20, P=0.006), and decreased pulmonary infection (OR=0.35, 95% CI=0.13~0.97, P=0.04). Conclusion Threshold training of respiratory muscles can improve respiratory muscle function and reduce the incidence of pulmonary infection.

Key words: stroke, pressure threshold load, respiratory muscle training, rehabilitation, meta-analysis