Long-term physical training allows high exercise performance in moderate chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a major health problem, because of its prevalence, morbidity and mortality. As a result of symptoms such as cough and dyspnea patients with COPD suffer from exercise limitation and reduced health related quality of life. The present paper reports the case of a 67-year old ex-smoker patient with COPD, who had exercised regularly since when he was young, and maintained a better exercise capacity than healthy people of the same age, despite a forced expiratory volume in 1 second of the 60% of the predicted normal value. This case suggests that regular physical exercise in COPD patients may prevent the loss of exercise capacity despite significant airway obstruction.