Impact of hypobaric flight simulation on walking distance and oxygenation in COPD patients

Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved..

BACKGROUND: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a disease that compromises fitness to fly.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate, whether hypobaric mid-distance flight simulation limits exercise endurance in COPD patients.

METHODS: Patients with COPD GOLD stages 2-4 were challenged by hypobaric flight simulation. Patients completed 6-minute walking distances before and after the simulation test. Pulse oximetry and Borg dyspnea scale were measured every 30 min during the test.

RESULTS: Thirty-five patients were included in the study. The distance of the 6-min walking exercise decreased from 343 ± 93 m to 308 ± 101 m (p < 0.0001). The oxygen saturation nadir for the whole group was 72.2% ± 9.1%. The Borg-dypnea-score did not correlate with oxygen desaturation (R-square 0.009, p > 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS: A 3-h hypobaric flight simulation compromises exercise endurance by 35 m or 10%. Hypoxia was well tolerated and more liberal recommendations might by justifiable since hypoxemia appears to be unrelated to dyspnea perception.

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2019

Erschienen:

2019

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:260

Enthalten in:

Respiratory physiology & neurobiology - 260(2019) vom: 01. Feb., Seite 1-7

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Dellweg, Dominic [VerfasserIn]
Schmitten, Juliane [VerfasserIn]
Kerl, Jens [VerfasserIn]
Hoehn, Ekkehard [VerfasserIn]
Haidl, Peter [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext

Themen:

6-MIN walking test
Altitude – respiration
COPD
Hypoxemia
Journal Article
Oxygen
Oxygen desaturation
Oxygen supplementation
S88TT14065

Anmerkungen:

Date Completed 03.04.2019

Date Revised 03.04.2019

published: Print-Electronic

Citation Status MEDLINE

doi:

10.1016/j.resp.2018.11.010

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

NLM291078567