TY - JOUR T1 - Exercise and cardiovascular benefit in subjects with COPD: the need for randomised trials JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J SP - 264 LP - 265 DO - 10.1183/09031936.00021914 VL - 44 IS - 1 AU - Lowie E.G.W. Vanfleteren AU - Martijn A. Spruit AU - Emiel F.M. Wouters AU - Frits M.E. Franssen Y1 - 2014/07/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/44/1/264.abstract N2 - From the authors:We thank C.E. Bolton and colleagues for their interest in our report about arterial stiffness in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) [1]. Our paper has two major findings: 1) aortic pulse wave velocity (PWV) in COPD is not related to systemic inflammation; and 2) aortic PWV does not respond to pulmonary rehabilitation [1]. According to C.E. Bolton and colleagues, these findings are unexpected as two previous papers did report small, but significant reductions in aortic PWV with exercise and/or pulmonary rehabilitation [[2, 3]. However, Vivodtzev et al. [2] used carotid-brachial pulse wave velocity as an outcome of arterial stiffness, which is known to be more susceptible to modification by exercise training than central (aortic) elastic … ER -