Prolonged Hypoxemia after 10min Walking Exercise in Aged Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Abstract

FUKUSHIMA, T., OHRUI, T., ITABASHI, S., SEKIZAWA, K., AIKAWA, T., YANAI, M., SASAKI, H. and TAKISHIMA, T. Prologed Hypoxemia after 10min Walking Exercise in Aged Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. Tohoku J. Exp. Med., 1990, 162 (4), 345-353 - Although the behavior and factors of exercise tolerance have been studied during exercise in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), little attention has been paid to the after-effects of such activity. Arterial oxygen saturation (SaO₂) was monitored during and after a 10min walking exercise in aged patients with COPD. Neither baseline SaO₂ nor mean SaO₂ during exercise correlated to the 10min walking distance. However, the recovery time of SaO₂ to the baseline value shows significant correlation to the 10min walking distance. Careful attention should be paid to prolonged hypoxemia after exercise in severe cases of COPD.