International journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
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Int J Chron Obstruct Pulmon Dis · Aug 2010
Comparative StudyChanges in six-minute walking distance during pulmonary rehabilitation in patients with COPD and in healthy subjects.
The six-minute walking distance (6MWD) test has demonstrated validity and reliability to assess changes in functional capacity following pulmonary rehabilitation in patients with chronic obstructive lung disease. However, no attempt has been made to establish an iterative measurement of 6MWD during the overall period of pulmonary rehabilitation. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of a twelve-week rehabilitation program on the iterative weekly measurement of 6MWD in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients and healthy subjects. ⋯ Both patients with COPD and healthy subjects demonstrated functional responses to training but with somewhat different patterns in quality of the improvement of the 6MWD.