Effect of pulmonary hypertension on exercise capacity and gas exchange in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease living at high altitude.

Background: Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is associated with decreased exercise tolerance in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients, but in the altitude the response to exercise in those patients is unknown. Our objective was to compare exercise capacity, gas exchange and ventilatory alterations between COPD patients with PH (COPD-PH) and without PH (COPD-nonPH) residents at high altitude (2640 m).

Methods: One hundred thirty-two COPD-nonPH, 82 COPD-PH, and 47 controls were included.

Exercise Capacity, Ventilatory Response, and Gas Exchange in COPD Patients With Mild to Severe Obstruction Residing at High Altitude.

Background: Exercise intolerance, desaturation, and dyspnea are common features in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). At altitude, the barometric pressure (BP) decreases, and therefore the inspired oxygen pressure and the partial pressure of arterial oxygen (PaO) also decrease in healthy subjects and even more in patients with COPD. Most of the studies evaluating ventilation and arterial blood gas (ABG) during exercise in COPD patients have been conducted at sea level and in small populations of people ascending to high altitudes.

Arterial blood gases and ventilation at rest by age and sex in an adult Andean population resident at high altitude.

Purpose: Arterial blood gases (ABG) are influenced by the altitude above sea level, age and sex. Most studies have been conducted at sea level and in small populations ascending to or residents at very high altitudes. Our objective was to evaluate the ventilation and ABG by age and sex in an Andean population resident at high altitude (2640 m).

Exercise endurance in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients at an altitude of 2640 meters breathing air and oxygen (FIO2 28% and 35%): a randomized crossover trial.

Background: At Bogota's altitude (2640 m), the lower barometric pressure (560 mmHg) causes severe hypoxemia in COPD patients, limiting their exercise capacity. The aim was to compare the effects of breathing oxygen on exercise tolerance.

Methods: In a blind, crossover clinical study, 29 COPD patients (FEV1 42.

Tomographic and functional findings in severe COPD: comparison between the wood smoke-related and smoking-related disease.

Objective: Wood smoke exposure is a risk factor for COPD. For a given degree of airway obstruction, the reduction in DLCO is smaller in individuals with wood smoke-related COPD than in those with smoking-related COPD, suggesting that there is less emphysema in the former. The objective of this study was to compare HRCT findings between women with wood smoke-related COPD and women with smoking-related COPD.