[The practicability of increasing exercise tolerance in mild to moderate asthmatic patients].
OBJECTIVE
By performing the cardiopulmonary exercise testing in mild to moderate asthmatic patients and healthy volunteers, to assess the practicability of increasing exercise tolerance and improving life quality in the patients, and to assess the relationship between the resting IC and the maximal workload.


METHODS
19 mild to moderate asthmatic patients participating in the cardiopulmonary exercise testing with 19 health volunteers as controls. The incremental test was used. Forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) and inspiratory capacity (IC) were measured before the test and FEV1 measurements were repeated after exercise. Heart rate(HR), oxygen uptake(VO2), ventilation per minute(VE), breathing frequency(BF) were continuously measured during the test.


RESULTS
There were changes of FEV1 after exercise in asthmatic patients [-(15.5 +/- 13.2)%] vs [+(1.7 +/- 2.7)%], (P < 0.05). They could achieve comparable VO2max (1.8 +/- 0.5) L/min vs (1.8 +/- 0.4) L/min, VEmax (29 +/- 7) L/min vs (31 +/- 5) L/min and O2-pulse max (0.0110 +/- 0.0020) L/beat vs (0.0110 +/- 0.0020) ml/beat with controls, but the BF at maximal exercise in asthmatic patients is significantly decreased (37 +/- 5) times/min vs (41 +/- 6) times/min, (P < 0.05). IC correlate with the maximum workload (r = 0.695, P < 0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
The mild to moderate asthmatic patients had the same cardiopulmonary exercise response as the healthy volunteers, indicating that they did not have ventilatory and circulatory limitation to exercise.
Zhao
X
X
Department of Respiratory Medicine, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100730, China.
Lin
Y
Y
D000328:Adult; D001249:Asthma / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005080:Exercise Test / Q000379:methods; D017079:Exercise Tolerance / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005541:Forced Expiratory Volume / Q000502:physiology; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010101:Oxygen Consumption / Q000502:physiology; D012123:Pulmonary Ventilation / Q000502:physiology; D012129:Respiratory Function Tests