Chest
Clinical InvestigationsEXERCISEStriking Similarities in Systemic Factors Contributing to Decreased Exercise Capacity in Patients With Severe Chronic Heart Failure or COPD
Section snippets
Study Population
Groups of 25 patients with COPD with moderate-to-severe airflow obstruction, 25 patients with moderate-to-severe CHF, and 36 healthy age-matched volunteers were studied. All pulmonary patients had COPD according to American Thoracic Society guidelines9 and chronic airflow limitation, defined as measured FEV1 < 70% of reference FEV1. Furthermore, patients with COPD had irreversible obstructive airway disease (< 10% improvement of FEV1 predicted baseline after β2-agonist inhalation). Patients
Subject Characteristics
Twenty-five patients with COPD (16 men and 9 women), 25 patients with CHF (17 men and 8 women), and 36 healthy control subjects (24 men and 12 women) participated in this study (Table 1). There were no differences in gender or age between the groups. Only patients with COPD had a lower BMI than control subjects; however, FFMI was reduced in patients with COPD as well as in patients with CHF compared to healthy subjects. PASE score was significantly lower in both patient groups than in control
Discussion
In the current study we demonstrate that both COPD and CHF, two distinct disorders with a comparably decreased exercise capacity, show striking similarities with respect to muscle dysfunction, loss of FFM, and reduced daily activity level when compared to age-matched healthy control subjects. We also show that peripheral skeletal muscle weakness is generalized in both disorders with upper and lower limb muscle function being equally affected. Furthermore, as in control subjects, the FFM is an
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
We thank Petra Heuts, Femke Ellens, and Dr. Matthijs Hesselink for assistance with isokinetic muscle testing.
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Supported by a grant from the Netherlands Asthma Foundation (project number 96.16).