Chest
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Measures of physical function, daily physical activity, and exercise capacity have been proposed for the care of patients with COPD but are not used routinely in daily office care. Gait speed is a powerful and simple measure of physical function in elderly patients and seems to be a promising measure for the daily care of patients with COPD. The objective of this study was to comprehensively evaluate the determinants and factors influencing gait speed in COPD, particularly the association of gait speed with objectively measured physical activity and the most used exercise capacity field test in cardiopulmonary disease: the 6-min walk test (6MWT). ⋯ Gait speed is more indicative of exercise capacity (6MWT) than daily physical activity in COPD. Despite its simplicity, gait speed has outstanding screening properties for detecting poor and very poor 6MWT performance, making it a useful and informative tool for the clinical care of patients with COPD.
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We report a case of a 41-year-old man who was noted to have position-dependent Cheyne-Stokes respiration with central sleep apnea (CSA) during sleep. The patient had multiple cardiovascular risk factors and target organ damages, including a history of two myocardial infarctions, transient ischemic attack, and chronic kidney disease. His hypertension was refractory to a number of antihypertensive medicines, however, a complete elimination of sleep-disordered breathing with oral theophylline treatment was paralleled by a significant BP fall with a subsequent need for reduction of antihypertensive drugs. ⋯ Theophylline discontinuation resulted in a gradual increase in BP and an urgent call for antihypertensive treatment modification. These observations suggest a potent hypotensive action of oral theophylline via Cheyne-Stokes respiration with CSA elimination. Our data suggest that CSA may be a mechanism that raises BP even during the daytime.