• Dandan Huang, Jian Guo, Wenlan Yang, and Jinming Liu.
• Department of Pulmonary Function Test, Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital, Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China; Department of Respiratory Medicine, Wuhu Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Wuhu, China.
• Am. J. Med. Sci. 2020 Mar 1; 359 (3): 140-146.

BackgroundAlthough anticoagulation therapy can reduce the risk for pulmonary embolism (PE) recurrence, symptoms such as exertional dyspnea or pain can persist for several months to years. Therefore, we aimed to assess the improvement of ventilatory efficiency and exercise capacity during cardiopulmonary exercise test in PE patients after short duration of anticoagulant therapy.Materials And MethodsPulmonary function testing, arterial blood gas analysis and cardiopulmonary exercise test were performed in 30 PE patients after anticoagulant therapy of 4 weeks (early phase) and after 6 months (late phase). In addition, another 30 healthy volunteers underwent the same tests.ResultsPercentage of forced vital capacity (FVC %pred) improvement was evident in the PE group (P < 0.01) after 6 months of treatment. Peak Load, peak Load %pred, peak oxygen uptake (V∘O2), peak V∘O2%pred increased significantly after treatment for 6 months (P < 0.01), while lowest minute ventilation in relation to carbon dioxide production (V∘E / V∘CO2) and lowest V∘E / V∘CO2 %pred decreased significantly (P = 0.001). In PE group, the increment of peak V∘O2 %pred from 4 weeks to 6 months correlated with the decrease of lowest V∘E / V∘CO2 %pred (r = 0.639, P < 0.001) but not the increment of FVC %pred (r = 0.058, P = 0.769).ConclusionsExercise capacity improved significantly and there was a gradual improvement in ventilatory efficiency after 6 months of anticoagulation therapy.Copyright © 2019 Southern Society for Clinical Investigation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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