Chester step test: assessment of functional capacity and magnitude of cardiorespiratory response in patients with COPD and healthy subjects.

Background: the assessment of functional capacity in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has been performed by simple and easy to apply methods that mimic everyday activities, such as the Chester step test (TChester).

Objectives: to investigate whether TChester is able to differentiate functional capacity and the magnitude of cardiorespiratory response of patients with COPD from healthy subjects; and to compare it with the cardiorespiratory response induced by shuttle test (TShuttle) and six-minute walk test (6MWT).

Method: 10 patients with COPD (64±10 years, and forced expiratory volume at the first second - FEV1 38.

Can the Glittre ADL test differentiate the functional capacity of COPD patients from that of healthy subjects?

Background: The Glittre ADL (TGlittre) test is a specifically designed to assess functional limitation in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients. However, it is not known if it can differentiate the performance of these patients from healthy subjects.

Objectives: To investigate whether the Glittre ADL test is able to differentiate the functional capacity of COPD patients from that of healthy subjects and to compare the cardiorespiratory response between Glittre ADL and the six-minute walk test (6MWT).