Abstract
INTRODUCTION: COPD is a disease with comorbidities, which contribute to morbidity and mortality, independently severity.
AIM: Study comorbidity patterns of COPD patients, correlation between comorbidities and outcomes of pulmonary rehabilitation.
METHODS: 32 patients with COPD, underwent a comprehensive pulmonary rehabilitation program, divided into two groups, according to comorbidities. Patients with none or one comorbidity (n=11) compared to those with two or more , in terms of their response to parameters: mMRC, CAT, SGRQ, 6MWT and CPET. As cardiovascular and metabolic comorbidities were the most frequent (68.8% and 53.1% respectively), we studied the outcomes of the program between two more subgroups of patients, those who presented and those who didn't present those two comorbidities.
RESULTS: The presence of comorbidity was reported (n=28, 87.5%) and more frequent were cardiovascular, metabolic, musculoskeletal, psychological, gastroenterological, cancers and sleep disorders. The outcomes of the subgroup of patients with none or one comorbidity and the subgroup of patients with two or more comorbidities did not present statistically significant difference to the following parameters: dyspnea (mMRC , CAT), quality of life (SGRQ),exercise capacity (6MWT). Only significant change was observed on Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing, where V02MAX showed an important percentage increase of 25.7% in the subgroup of patients with none or one comorbidity compared to the subgroup of patients with two or more (p=0.024).
CONCLUSIONS: Pulmonary Rehabilitation in COPD seems to benefit all the subgroups of patients, independently of the presence, the number or the nature of their comorbidities.
- Copyright ©the authors 2016
