Heart & lung : the journal of critical care
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Comparative Study
Relationship between different indices of exercise capacity and clinical measures in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
The purpose of this study was to make comparisons between different types of exercise tests used in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) to better interpret the results and to select the most suitable testing procedure. Therefore, we evaluated the relationship between exercise capacity and other clinical measures and their relative contributions to exercise capacity in patients with COPD. ⋯ The 3 different exercise tests had similar characteristics in relation to pulmonary function, dyspnea, and health-related quality of life in patients with COPD. However, some differences were found in the aspects they evaluated.
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To determine baseline values of cardiac index (CI) and oxygen transport variables in patients with multiple trauma within 24 hours of admission to a level I trauma center. ⋯ All patients were hypermetabolic, but older patients were much less so. Younger patients progressively had increased CI and DO2 levels, whereas older patients started with low levels that remained so. Patients in each age group appeared to lock into a level of VO2 that did not change over time. These findings underscore the vulnerability of older patients to poor outcomes. As the magnitude of the postinjury response is partly age-dependent, future research should differentiate patient characteristics associated with positive outcomes among elderly trauma patients.