Chest
Original ResearchCOPDHow Should We Measure Arm Exercise Capacity in Patients With COPD?: A Systematic Review
Section snippets
Search Strategy
Electronic searches were conducted of the PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL, PEDro, and Cochrane Library databases, from the inception of these databases until December 2010. Key terms included “COPD,” “arm,” “upper extremity,” “upper limb,” “training,” “exercise,” “arm exercise capacity,” “arm endurance,” “arm function,” “arm exercise test,” and “assessment.” Hand searches were performed of the reference lists of all identified studies.
Inclusion Criteria
We considered studies of any design conducted with individuals with
Literature Search
The study selection process is illustrated in Figure 1. The electronic and hand searches identified 654 articles. After screening study titles and abstracts, 601 were considered to be unrelated to the study or were duplicate articles. Fifty-three remained for full-text analysis; of these, 12 articles were excluded, leaving a total of 41 articles for inclusion in this review. The reasons for exclusion are presented in Figure 1. Different categories of arm exercise tests were identified among the
Discussion
The findings of this systematic review of 41 articles revealed that there are five main types of arm exercise tests available for patients with COPD: arm ergometry, ring shifts, dowel or arm lifts, diagonal movement using PNF, and ADL-based tests. The choice of the test should depend on the target construct being measured and on the psychometric properties of the tests. See Table 4 for advantages and disadvantages of each test. Arm ergometry may be best for measuring peak arm exercise capacity
Conclusions
There are several tools available to measure arm exercise capacity in people with COPD. The choice of test should depend on the target construct being measured and on the known psychometric properties of the test. In addition, feasibility, patient tolerance, and ease of administration should be considered when choosing a specific test for a clinical or research purpose.
Although arm ergometry appears to be the best choice to measure supported peak arm exercise capacity and endurance in patients
Acknowledgments
Author contributions: Dr Brooks had full access to all of the data in the study and takes full responsibility for the integrity of all of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis, including and especially any adverse effects.
Dr Janaudis-Ferreira: made direct and substantial contribution to this work by participating in conceiving and designing the study, extracting the data, interpreting the data, writing the manuscript, and approving the final version of the manuscript.
Ms Beauchamp: made
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Funding/Support: The authors have reported to CHEST that no funding was received for this study.
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