Respiratory medicine
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Respiratory medicine · Sep 2009
Multicenter StudyHealth-related quality of life in outpatient women with COPD in daily practice: the MUVICE Spanish study.
A cross-sectional multicenter study was designed to assess health-related quality of life (HRQL) in women with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) who were attended in the outpatient setting in actual conditions of the daily practice. ⋯ In outpatient women with COPD, HRQL was impaired especially the physical component of the SF-12. For the same age and severity of COPD, women showed significantly lower scores in all physical and mental domains of the SF-12 than men.
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Respiratory medicine · Sep 2009
Multicenter StudyHealth status perception and airflow obstruction in five Latin American cities: the PLATINO study.
COPD is a highly prevalent disease but underdiagnosed, undertreated and possibly under-recognized by patients. Limited information exists regarding patients' perception of COPD severity. We compared patients' general health status perception, degree of breathlessness and physical activity limitation with the severity of their respiratory condition measured by airway obstruction, in a population-based sample. ⋯ The discrepancy observed between general health status, dyspnea severity, physical activity limitation and airway obstruction most likely reflect patients' underperception of disease severity, emphasizing the need for improving case-finding measures and multi-component evaluation of COPD subjects.
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Respiratory medicine · Sep 2009
Natriuretic peptides for the prediction of severely impaired peak VO2 in patients with lung disease.
B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) is a predictor of death in patients with lung disease. We hypothesised that in patients with lung disease, BNP and N-terminal-pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) could predict a peak VO(2)<15 ml/kg/min, which is the proposed cut-off indicating an increased risk of perioperative complications during lung resection surgery. ⋯ In patients with lung disease, BNP or NT-proBNP is independently associated with low peak VO(2). A simple score based on spirometry, blood gases and BNP or NT-proBNP has a high accuracy for the prediction of a peak VO(2)<15 ml/kg/min.