Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPE)) is a frustrating illness not only for patients but also for their physicians whose medical treatment has only partial success in alleviating symptoms and improving functional capacity. One key component in the management of patients with COPE) is pulmonary rehabilitation, the corner stone of which is exercise training. This work was carried out to assess the value of exercise rehabilitation in improving physical performance and health related quality of life in patients with COPE). This study included primarily 23 patients diagnosed as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPE)) according to the ATS criteria for the diagnosis of COPE). Out of those 23 patients only 19 patients completed the program to the end. Four patients were missed due to either acute exacerbation (2 patients) or lack of compliance to the training program. Patients were divided into two groups according to the ATS staging of disease severity group A: containing patients with mild disease (10 patients), group B: containing patients with moderate disease (9 patients). We found that there were sig-
nificant but small clinical impact on dynamic lung volumes (namely FEV1 which was increased by 3.7% in the mild group and 3.8% in the moderate group, and MVV which was increased by 5.5% in the mild group, and 3.7% in the moderate group). Also, there was significant improvement in 6-minute walking test stairclimbing time in seconds, and overhead task by 15.5%, 9%, and 8% respectively. Improvements in exercise tolerance regarding exercise testing time (30% in the mild, 28% in the moderate) and 29% in all studied patients, Le, mild and moderate cases), peak WR (22% in the mild, 10% in the moderate, and 16% in all patients), and V02 (12% in the mild, 9% in the moderate, and 10.5% in all patients). We also found significant reductions in VO2 at identical levels of exercise (7% in the mild group, and 6% in the moderate group). We conclude that there were similar gains in physical performance and health related quality of life (measured by CRQ) among patients with mild and moderate disease after exercise training. Also these improvements were more obvious in the mild than in the moderate group in all parameters.
INTRODUCTION |
