• Gennaro Boccia, Davide Dardanello, Nicoletta Rinaldo, Giuseppe Coratella, Federico Schena, and Alberto Rainoldi.
• Motor Science Research Center, School of Exercise and Sport Sciences, SUISM, Department of Medical Sciences, University of Turin, 12, Piazza Bernini, Torino, Italy. CeRiSM Research Center "Sport, Mountain, and Health," Via del Ben 5/b, Rovereto, Italy.
• Respir Care. 2015 Sep 1; 60 (9): 1295-302.

BackgroundThe aim of this study was to investigate whether electromyographic manifestations of fatigue and exercise tolerance were related to stage of disease in men with a COPD diagnosis.MethodsFourteen men with COPD with a diagnosis of mild to severe air flow obstruction were involved in 2 separate testing sessions. The first one consisted of a pulmonary function (FEV1 and FEV1/FVC) and an exercise tolerance assessment using the 6-min walk test. During the second session, a multichannel surface electromyography was recorded from vastus medialis and vastus lateralis muscles during an isometric knee extension at 70% of maximum voluntary contraction. The slope of muscle fiber conduction velocity during the contraction was calculated as the index of fatigue.ResultsConduction velocity slope significantly correlated with FEV1 (vastus medialis: r = 0.86, P < .001; vastus lateralis: r = 0.68, P = .01), FEV1/FVC (vastus medialis: r = 0.70, P = .006), and 6-min walk test (vastus medialis: r = 0.72, P = .005; vastus lateralis: r = 0.80, P = .001).ConclusionsThe electromyographic manifestations of fatigue during sustained quadriceps contraction significantly correlated with disease severity and exercise tolerance in moderate to severe COPD.Copyright © 2015 by Daedalus Enterprises.

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