PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Jinming Liu
AU  - Shujuan Chen
AU  - Wenlan Yang
AU  - Jian Guo
TI  - Clinical usefulness of the oxygen uptake efficiency in pulmonary embolism
DP  - 2014 Sep 01
TA  - European Respiratory Journal
PG  - P2168
VI  - 44
IP  - Suppl 58
4099  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/44/Suppl_58/P2168.short
4100  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/44/Suppl_58/P2168.full
SO  - Eur Respir J2014 Sep 01; 44
AB  - OBJECTIVES We sought to study the oxygen uptake efficiency, an index of cardiopulmonary functional reserve that can be based upon a submaximal exercise effort, in pulmonary embolism (PE) by performing the cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET).METHODS The cardiopulmonary exercise test with simultaneous respiratory gas measurement were performed in fifty PE patients and fifty healthy individuals. All subjects also underwent the pulmonary function test (PFT).RESULTS (1) In compared with the controls, the PE patients had lower peak oxygen uptake (peakVO2), oxygen uptake efficiency slope (OUES), oxygen uptake efficiency plateau (OUEP) and oxygen uptake efficiency at anaerobic threshold (OUE@AT) (P&amp;lt;0.001). (2) In PE patients, oxygen uptake efficiency (OUE=VO2 /VE) at warming up, AT and peak exercise but the rest, indicated statistically lower than the controls. The OUE in normal subjects increased as unloaded exercise began, and then increased further to OUEP just before the AT. Thereafter, the OUE decreased gradually until peak exercise. In contrast, the rate of changes of the OUE in PE patients was relatively mild during exercise. (3) OUES, OUEP, OUE@AT correlated strongly with peakVO2 and DLCO%pred (r=0.712,0.404,0.414; p&amp;lt;0.001,0.01,0.01; r=0.683,0.505,0.491; p&amp;lt;0.001,0.01,0.01).CONCLUSIONS The oxygen uptake efficiency of patients with PE decreases. The OUE is an objective, reproducible measure of cardiopulmonary reserve that does not require a maximal exercise effort. Therefore, OUE could be helpful to assess exercise performance in PE patients that unable to perform a maximal exercise test in early recovery stage.