RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Reproducibility of a time trial cycle ergometer test protocol in comparison to a constant work rate test protocol in patients with COPD
JF European Respiratory Journal
JO Eur Respir J
FD European Respiratory Society
SP p1226
VO 38
IS Suppl 55
A1 Willem Gosens
A1 Joost Oomen
A1 Alex van 't Hul
A1 Matthijs Hesselink
A1 Lars Borghouts
YR 2011
UL http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/38/Suppl_55/p1226.abstract
AB Introduction: In cardiopulmonary rehabilitation programs (CPR), constant-load cycle endurance tests (CLET) protocols are used to evaluate the response to specific interventions. In healthy subjects CLET protocols show a much lower reproducibility than time trial test (TTT) protocols. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the reproducibility of the CLET protocol and TTT protocol on a cycle ergometer in patients with COPD.Methods: In 20 patients with COPD (GOLD II-IV, FEV1 of 56±15%) exercise performance was measured. Patients were randomly allocated to a CLET protocol or TTT protocol. Patients performed the test protocol to which they were assigned, five times. Patients in the CLET group exercised to exhaustion at 120% of the actual individual training workload attained in the during CPR training sessions. Patients in the TTT group were asked to perform a certain amount of work (120% * Wtraining * 420) as fast as possible.Results: TTT protocol showed a significantly lower coefficient of variation (CV) (6.6±3.6) than the CLET protocol (22.2±9.8) (P <.001). Individual CV (time to completion) ranged from 9.0% to 36,9% in the CWRT protocol and from 3,4% to 16,3% in the TTT protocol. There was a significant difference between the mean exercise time of the CLET (591±185 s) and the TTT (367±122 s) (P <.005). There were no differences in mean work (p =.058), power (p =.463), RPM (p =.629), subjective assessments of breathlessness (P =.55) and leg fatigue (P =.15) between the CLET and de TTT protocol.Conclusions: The TTT protocol reproducibility was sign. higher than in the CLET protocol in patients with moderate-to-severe COPD.