Good repeatability ( for the 6MWT and ESWT ) and reproducibility ( for the 6MWT , 12-minute walk test , ISWT , ESWT , and incremental cycle ergometer test ) were reported by most studies assessing these tests , providing patients were familiarized with them beforeh and .
The 6MWT , ISWT , and particularly the ESWT were reported to be sensitive to therapeutic intervention .
Exercise tests are often used to evaluate the functional status of patients with COPD .
However , to the best of our knowledge , a comprehensive systematic comparison of these tests has not been performed .
We systematic ally review ed studies reporting the repeatability and /or reproducibility of these tests , and studies comparing their sensitivity to therapeutic intervention .
Comparison of different exercise tests in assessing outcomes of pulmonary rehabilitation.
INTRODUCTION Common modalities of clinical exercise testing for outcome measurement after pulmonary rehabilitation ( PR ) include walk tests , progressive cycle ergometry , and cycle endurance testing . We hypothesized that patients ' responses to PR , as measured by those 3 tests , are differentially correlated , and we design ed a study to investigate the tests ' capacity to detect changes after PR . METHODS We prospect ively tested 37 male patients with stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease who completed a comprehensive 6-week PR program that included supervised exercise training that emphasized steady-state lower-limb aerobic exercise . Before and after the PR program the patients underwent 6-minute walk test , progressive cycle ergometry , and cycle endurance testing ( at 80 % of the peak work rate achieved during progressive cycle ergometry ) . The exercise performance indices of interest were the peak oxygen uptake ( VO2max ) and maximum work-rate ( Wmax ) during progressive cycle ergometry , the cycling endurance time , and the 6-minute walk distance ( 6MWD ) . RESULTS After PR there were statistically significant improvements in 6MWD ( 16 % , p < 0.001 ) , VO2max ( 53 % , p=0.004 ) , Wmax ( 30 % , p=0.001 ) , and cycling endurance time ( 144 % , p < 0.001 ) . The changes in VO2max and Wmax were significantly correlated ( r=0.362 , p=0.027 ) , as were the changes in endurance time and Wmax ( r=0.406 , p=0.013 ) . There was no significant correlation between changes in any other exercise index . CONCLUSIONS Among the frequently used exercise tests in PR , the most responsive index is the endurance time . The correlation between the post-PR changes in the various exercise indices is poor
Good repeatability ( for the 6MWT and ESWT ) and reproducibility ( for the 6MWT , 12-minute walk test , ISWT , ESWT , and incremental cycle ergometer test ) were reported by most studies assessing these tests , providing patients were familiarized with them beforeh and .
The 6MWT , ISWT , and particularly the ESWT were reported to be sensitive to therapeutic intervention .
Exercise tests are often used to evaluate the functional status of patients with COPD .
However , to the best of our knowledge , a comprehensive systematic comparison of these tests has not been performed .
We systematic ally review ed studies reporting the repeatability and /or reproducibility of these tests , and studies comparing their sensitivity to therapeutic intervention .