PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Agustin Valido
AU  - Ana Gomez-Bastero
AU  - Virginia Almadana
AU  - Estefania Luque
AU  - Teodoro Montemayor
TI  - Clinical and functional differences, exercise capacity and physical activity among frequent and not frequent exacerbators in COPD patients
DP  - 2014 Sep 01
TA  - European Respiratory Journal
PG  - P4883
VI  - 44
IP  - Suppl 58
4099  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/44/Suppl_58/P4883.short
4100  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/44/Suppl_58/P4883.full
SO  - Eur Respir J2014 Sep 01; 44
AB  - Aim:to assess the differences in exercise capacity and physical activity based on the number of exacerbations.Material and Methods:Observational and retrospective study of COPD patients during the last 4 months. We analyzed several variables: epidemiological, clinical and functional, quality of life(CAT), 6 minutes walking test – 6MWT and physical activity. We divided the patients based on the number of exacerbations within the last year (ex-year): no frequent exacerbators (NF) (<2 ex-year) and frequent exacerbators (F) (≥2 ex-year).Results:100 patients were included: 39 showed < 2 ex-year vs 61 ≥ 2 ex-year. Significant differences were found in age,MRC dyspnea, presence of respiratory failure,BODE, GOLD 2011 and GesEPOC when comparing both groups in terms of general and clinical characteristics and scores on quality of life questionnaires and rate of severity and prognosis. There were differences in the characteristics of exacerbations and the lung function parameters (FEV1 and IC / TLC), but not in exercise tolerance and physical activity of patients in both groups.Conclusions:1.With the patients presenting a greater number of exacerbations leads to a worse clinical and functional status.2.Our patient's capacity or tolerance to exercise is not influenced by having more or less exacerbations nor by the degree of physical activity.