Physiological responses during downhill walking: A new exercise modality for subjects with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease?

Skeletal muscle quadriceps low-frequency fatigue (LFF) during exercise promotes improvements in exercise capacity with exercise training. In healthy subjects, eccentric muscle work induced by downhill walking (DW) generates higher muscular stress, whilst metabolic cost is lower compared to level walking (LW). We investigated quadriceps LFF and metabolic cost of DW in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Alveolar and bronchial exhaled nitric oxide in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Background: Fractional exhaled NO (Fe,NO) has yielded inconsistent results in COPD. Measuring exhaled NO at multiple flow rates however, allows to dissect exhaled NO in an alveolar (CAlv,NO) and bronchial (J'aw,NO) fraction, which are claimed to better reflect the bronchial and alveolar inflammation in COPD. We examined whether the use of Fe,NO, CAlv,NO and J'aw,NO may contribute to the clinical diagnosis of COPD.