Reliability of the Determination of the Ventilatory Threshold in Patients with COPD.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the interobserver reliability of the assessment of the ventilatory threshold (VT) using two methods in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and in control subjects.

Methods: VT was identified from incremental exercise testing graphs of 115 subjects (23 controls and 23 in each COPD Global initiative for chronic Obstructive Lung Disease class) by two human observers and a computer analysis using the V-slope method and the ventilatory equivalent method (VEM). Agreement between observers in identifying oxygen uptake at VT (VO 2VT) and HR at VT (HR VT) across disease severity groups was evaluated using intraclass correlation (for humans) and Passing-Bablok regression analysis (human vs computer).

Mild cognitive impairment in moderate to severe COPD: a preliminary study.

Background: Cognitive impairment is a frequent feature of COPD. However, the proportion of patients with COPD with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is still unknown, and no screening test has been validated to date for detecting MCI in this population. The goal of this study was to determine the frequency and subtypes of MCI in patients with COPD and to assess the validity of two cognitive screening tests, the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), in detecting MCI in patients with COPD.

Modification of COPD presentation during the last 25 years.

During the last decades progress has been made in the treatment of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). We compared a random sample of patients admitted for an exacerbation in the period 2001-2005 (n = 101), with a random sample of patients hospitalized for the same reason in the period 1980-1984 (n = 51). Patients of the 2001-2005 cohort had a lower FEV1 (48 ± 3 vs.

Inspired fraction of carbon dioxide in oxygen supply to chronic pulmonary disease.

Hypoxemic patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are at risk of carbon dioxide (CO(2)) retention during oxygen therapy and hypercapnia in COPD is associated with an ominous prognosis. Rebreathing with oxygen mask is possible in practice and possibly affects CO(2) retention due to an increased inspired fraction of CO(2). Its effects on arterial partial pressure of CO(2) during oxygen supply have, to the best of our knowledge, never been studied.