Effect of Supplemental Oxygen on Physiological Responses to Exercise in Fibrotic Interstitial Lung Disease.

Purpose: We studied the effect of O 2 supplementation on physiological response to exercise in patients with moderate to severe interstitial lung disease (ILD).

Methods: Thirteen patients (age 66 ± 10 yr, 7 males) with ILD (total lung capacity, 71% ± 22% predicted; carbon monoxide diffusion capacity, 44% ± 16% predicted) and 13 healthy individuals (age 50 ± 17 yr, 7 males) were tested. ILD patients performed symptom-limited cardiopulmonary exercise tests and constant work rate (WR) tests at 80% of the WR at the gas exchange threshold.

Prediction of exercise respiratory limitation from pulmonary function tests.

Background: Evaluation of unexplained exercise intolerance is best resolved by cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) which enables the determination of the exercise limiting system in most cases. Traditionally, pulmonary function tests (PFTs) at rest are not used for the prediction of a respiratory limitation on CPET.

Objective: We sought cut-off values on PFTs that might, a priori, rule-in or rule-out a respiratory limitation in CPET.

The role of inspiratory capacity and tidal flow in diagnosing exercise ventilatory limitation in Cystic Fibrosis.

Background: Exercise ventilatory limitation conventionally defined by reduced breathing reserve (BR) may underestimate the effect of lung disease on exercise capacity in patients with mild to moderate obstructive lung diseases.

Objective: To investigate whether ventilatory limitation may be present despite a normal BR in Cystic Fibrosis (CF).

Methods: Twenty adult CF patients (age 16-58y) with a wide range of pulmonary obstruction severity completed a symptom-limited incremental exercise test on a cycle ergometer.

Oxygen uptake kinetics during exercise reveal central and peripheral limitation in patients with iliofemoral venous obstruction.

Objective: Pulmonary oxygen uptake (V˙O) kinetics measured during the initiation of exercise mirror energetic transition during daily activity. The aim of this study was to elucidate the pathophysiological mechanisms of exercise limitation of patients with chronic iliofemoral vein obstruction after deep vein thrombosis by measuring V˙O kinetics compared with patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD) and healthy individuals.

Methods: Eleven patients with iliofemoral vein obstruction (7 men; age, 20-65 years), seven patients with PAD (all men; age 44-60 years) and eight healthy participants (5 men; age 28-58 years) were studied.