6533b88afe1ef96bd12e1c1a

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Exercise respiratory cycle time components in patients with emphysema

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Background: We have recently demonstrated that in patients with COPD the severity of emphysema (E) measured by high resolution computed tomography (HRCT) correlated with: ratio VTpeak/FEV1; VE/VCO2 slope and PETCO2 values at peak exercise. The aim of this study was to further investigate if exercise respiratory cycle time components correlated with % of E measured by HRCT. Method: Twelve patients (age = 65±8 yrs; FEV1 = 55±17%pred) with moderate to severe E (quantified by lung HRCT as % voxels 50% and <50%), we observed that patients with higher % of E had longer TeM (TeM: 1,72±0,26sec vs 1,34±0,27sec, p = 0,005) and TeM-end. A good linear correlation has been observed also between TeM and PETCO2 and VE/VCO2 (r = 0,64; p = 0,002 and r = 0,7; p = 0,0005). TeM did not correlated with resting lung function values or inspiratory capacity (IC). Conclusion: The data confirm that distinct physiologic response pattern can be detected at CPET in these patients.