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Updated: Jun 24, 2026

Home-Based Prescribed Pulmonary Exercise in Patients with Stable Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
Published on: August 24, 2019
The influence of lung function and muscular strength on the functional capacity of chronic obstructive pulmonary
Sérgio Leite Rodrigues1, César Augusto Melo E Silva, Tereza Lima
1Mestre em Ciências da Saúde / MSC, Health Sciences.
Aim:
To determine which variable (forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1), partial pressure of oxygen in arterial blood (PaO2), nocturnal hypoxaemia and muscular strength of femoral quadriceps) can predict the distance walked in the six-minute walk test (6MWT) by COPD patients.
Methods:
A cross-sectional and observational study of thirty patients referred to a pulmonary rehabilitation programme at a university hospital. Lung function was evaluated by spirometry, arterial blood gas analysis and nocturnal oximetry. Muscle function was evaluated by quadriceps strength and functional capacity by the 6MWT.
Results:
Bivariate regression analysis showed that quadriceps strength, was the only variable to correlate significantly with the distance walked in the 6MWT (p=0.002), accounting for 38% of the 6MWT variance. The statistical relationship established for these variables was 1kg of quadriceps strength equalled 5.9 metres walked in the 6MWT.
Conclusions:
Our results showed the importance of lower limb muscle strength in submaximal exercise testing. We conclude that femoral quadriceps muscle strength is the only one of the variables studied which can predict the distance COPD patients walk in the 6MWT.
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