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 .
Paced-Walk and Step Tests to Assess Exertional Dyspnea in COPD
This study reports on the development and test-retest reproducibility of a modified shuttle walking and step testing protocol s to assess exertional dyspnea in patients with COPD . Patients with COPD r and omly performed four externally paced 3-min bouts of shuttle walking at 1.5 , 2.5 , 4.0 and 6.0 km·h− 1 or stepping at constant rate of 18 , 22 , 26 and 32 steps·min− 1 . Walking and stepping procedures were repeated once , on a separate occasion . Ventilation , heart rate , gas exchange parameters and dyspnea Borg scores were obtained at the end of each exercise bout . Most patients completed walking or stepping at the slow and middle speed cadences but only 33 % completed walking at 6.0 km·h− 1 and 40 % completed stepping at 32 steps·min− 1 . Walking and stepping at progressively faster pace caused a progressive increase in ventilation and dyspnea . Test-retest Pearson correlation coefficients for ventilation , heart rate , gas exchange parameters and dyspnea scores over the four exercise bouts , all exceeded 0.80 . Intra-class correlation coefficients were at least as strong as Pearson coefficients . Bl and & Altman representation showed that for repeated Borg scores , 92 and 96 % of points lied within 2 SD of the mean difference between test-retest values for walking and stepping . The majority of moderate and severe COPD patients completed the 3-min shuttle waking testing at 1.5 to 4.0 km·h− 1 and the 3-min of step testing at rates between 18 and 26 steps·min− 1 . Both field tests were highly reproducible in patients with COPD
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 .