Cardiac, ventilatory, and metabolic adjustments in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients during the performance of Glittre activities of daily living test

Functional status and quality of life are measures of the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patient's health status and can demonstrate the impact of the disease on the patient's ability to perform activities of daily living (ADLs). The Glittre-ADL test was developed to evaluate the functional status of COPD patients and their ability to perform activities of daily life. The objective of this study was to evaluate the cardiac, respiratory, and metabolic adjustments and reproducibility of the Glittre ADL test performed by COPD patients. Twenty-two mild to severe COPD patients (forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1): 56.6 ± 19.9% predicted; mean age: 66.3 ± 9.18 years old) were enrolled in this study. Metabolic (oxygen uptake (VO2), carbon dioxide production (VCO2), pulmonary ventilation (VE)/VCO2, and VE/VO2), ventilatory (tidal volume, respiratory rate, and VE), and cardiovascular (pulse oxygen saturation, VO2/heart rate (HR), and HR) variables, lower limbs fatigue, and dyspnea (Borg score) after each lap of two Glittre ADL test were analyzed. All metabolic, ventilatory, and cardiac variables increased their values up to the third lap and remained stable (plateau) until the end of the test (five laps; multivariate analysis); there was no difference among the time spent to complete each of the five laps in each test and between tests (total time of second test: 4 minutes and 3 seconds); the second test was 17.8 seconds (6.6%) shorter than the first one (NS). All variables were highly reproducible in the two tests (NS). At the end of the test, patients reached 87.7% of the VO2 max, 81% of VE peak, and 88.5% of the HR peak obtained from an incremental maximal test on a treadmill. The Glittre ADL test is easy for COPD patients to perform and is a highly reproducible test in COPD patients with mild to severe stages of the disease. In addition, our results suggest that it is possible to demonstrate the patient's functional capacity with a single test of only three laps, making it faster and easier to apply and less stressful for some patients.