title: Long-term physical training allows high exercise performance in moderate chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
abstract: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a major health problem, because of its prevalence, morbidity and mortality. As a result of symptoms such as cough and dyspnea patients with COPD suffer from exercise limitation and reduced health related quality of life. The present paper reports the case of a 67-year old ex-smoker patient with COPD, who had exercised regularly since when he was young, and maintained a better exercise capacity than healthy people of the same age, despite a forced expiratory volume in 1 second of the 60% of the predicted normal value. This case suggests that regular physical exercise in COPD patients may prevent the loss of exercise capacity despite significant airway obstruction.
authors.affiliation: Respiratory Phisiopathology, High-specialized Regional Center, Cava de' Tirreni Hospital, Local Health Unit Salerno 1, Salerno, Italy.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Santoriello
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Fiorenzano
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Musella
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: De Rosa
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Polverino
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D015444:Exercise; D005080:Exercise Test; D017079:Exercise Tolerance; D005541:Forced Expiratory Volume; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010809:Physical Fitness; D029424:Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index