Development of an unsupported arm exercise test in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
BACKGROUND
Unsupported arm exercise tests have been used to evaluate the effects of pulmonary rehabilitation in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), but the reliability and validity of these tests are not established.


OBJECTIVE
We evaluated the test-retest reliability and validity of a 6-minute pegboard and ring test (PBRT) in 27 outpatients with COPD and 30 age-matched controls.


METHODS
We evaluated a 6-minute PBRT, subject demographics, pulmonary function and disease-specific quality of life questionnaire, and the Pulmonary Functional Status Dyspnea Questionnaire-Modified version in 27 patients with COPD.


RESULTS
Highly significant correlation coefficients (r = .91, P < .001) were found between test and retest of PBRT scores. Statistically significant correlation coefficients were found between PBRT scores and pulmonary function tests such as FEV1% pred and FVC% pred, and activity domain and subdomain of Pulmonary Functional Status Dyspnea Questionnaire-Modified (P <or= .045). In addition, PBRT scores of healthy subjects were significantly higher than those of COPD subjects (P < .001), and were inversely related to age (P = .031). The FEV1% predicted and gender together accounted for 50% of the variance in the PBRT scores of patients with COPD.


CONCLUSIONS
PBRT is a reliable and valid method to assess unsupported arm exercise endurance in patients with COPD.
Zhan
Su
S
SUNY Buffalo, NY, USA.
Cerny
Frank J
FJ
Gibbons
William J
WJ
Mador
M Jeffery
MJ
Wu
Yow-Wu
YW
D000368:Aged; D001132:Arm; D005080:Exercise Test / Q000379:methods*; D017079:Exercise Tolerance / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005541:Forced Expiratory Volume / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D029424:Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000534:rehabilitation; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012129:Respiratory Function Tests; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013997:Time Factors