What is it about?
This study examines the effects of obstructive airway abnormalities with air trapping in people affected by COPD, on the ability to exercise at an increasing work rate and limitation which often appear in these patients. In particular we sought to examine the limitations on breathing in these patients, as measured in relation to CO2 extraction, designated ventilatory equivalents.
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Why is it important?
Several reasons could explain exercise limitation in patients with COPD, chief of which are reduced breathing reserve and physical unfitness. Obstructive airway abnormality is associated with air trapping, which may become more severe as a person with COPD exercises and has less time for expiration during the breathing cycle, a phenomenon referred to as dynamic hyperinflation. We show that such air trapping is correlated with less ability to increase ventilation at higher exercise work rates when a higher portion of metabolic energy required for exercise is obtained from anaerobic metabolism, with increased CO2 production which adds a further burden on already restricted ventilation.
Perspectives
Ventilatory equivalents, i.e., the ratio of Ventilation divided by the rate of CO2 production (VE/VCO2), changes during exercise in an interesting manner and has generated an increasing interest amongst exercise researchers in recent years. Here, an attempt is made to further understand the behavior of ventilatory equivalents during incremental cardiopulmonary exercise testing in COPD, and to correlate these patterns with static measurements of pulmonary function performed at rest.
Dr Samir Nusair
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Ventilatory compensation during the incremental exercise test is inversely correlated with air trapping in COPD, F1000Research, March 2020, Faculty of 1000, Ltd.,
DOI: 10.12688/f1000research.20444.2.
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