External heated humidification during non-invasive ventilation set up: results from a pilot cross-over clinical trial.

Patient comfort is important in ensuring adherence to domiciliary non-invasive ventilation (NIV). Oronasal dryness is often reported with NIV use [1], but the use of heated humidification in clinical practice is not uniform [2]. As there are limited data to currently guide clinical practice, we investigated the effect of external heated humidification on neural respiratory drive (NRD), patient-ventilator asynchrony (PVA), patient-reported outcomes, ventilator performance and adherence in a pilot randomised cross-over trial in patients with chronic respiratory failure during NIV set up. Footnotes This manuscript has recently been accepted for publication in the European Respiratory Journal . It is published here in its accepted form prior to copyediting and typesetting by our production team. After these production processes are complete and the authors have approved the resulting proofs, the article will move to the latest issue of the ERJ online. Please open or download the PDF to view this article. Conflict of interest: Dr. Mandal reports grants from Fisher and Paykel, during the conduct of the study. Conflict of interest: Dr. Ramsay has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Dr. Suh has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Miss Harding has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Miss Thompson has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Dr. Douiri reports grants from Philips-Respironics, outside the submitted work. Conflict of interest: Dr. Moxham has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Dr. Murphy reports grants and personal fees from Philips, grants and personal fees from Breas, grants and personal fees from ResMed, grants and personal fees from Fischer-Paykel, outside the submitted work. Conflict of interest: NH reports unrestricted grants from Fisher Paykel within the direct area of work commented on here with the funds held and managed by Guy's & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust; NH reports unrestricted grants from Philips and Resmed outside the direct area of work commented on here with the funds held and managed by Guy's & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust; financial support from Philips for development of the MYOTRACE technology that has patent filed in Europe (US pending) outside the area of work commented on here; personal fees for lecturing from Philips-Respironics, Philips, Resmed, Fisher-Paykel both within and outside the area of work commented on here; NH and is on the Pulmonary Research Advisory Board for Philips outside the area of work commented on here with the funds for this role held by Guy's & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.