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Clinical features and associated factors of impaired ventilatory efficiency: findings from the ECOPD study in China
Zhishan Deng1, Fan Wu1,2, Qi Wan1
1State Key Laboratory of Respiratory Disease & National Clinical Research Center for Respiratory Disease & Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Health & National Center for Respiratory Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
Background:
Impaired ventilatory efficiency during exercise is a predictor of mortality in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. However, little is known about the clinical features and associated factors of impaired ventilatory efficiency in China.
Methods:
We conducted a cross-sectional community-based study in China and collected demographic and clinical information, cardiopulmonary exercise testing, spirometry, and CT data. Impaired ventilatory efficiency was defined by a nadir ventilatory equivalent for CO2 production above the upper limit of normal. Multivariable linear and logistic regression models were used to explore the clinical features and associated factors of impaired ventilatory efficiency.
Results:
The final analyses included 941 subjects, 702 (74.6%) of whom had normal ventilatory efficiency and 239 (25.4%) had impaired ventilatory efficiency. Participants with impaired ventilatory efficiency had more chronic respiratory symptoms, poorer lung function and exercise capacity, and more severe emphysema (natural logarithm transformation of the low-attenuation area of the lung with attenuation values below -950 Hounsfield units, logLAA-950: 0.19±0.65 vs -0.28±0.63, p<0.001) and air trapping (logLAA-856: 1.03±0.65 vs 0.68±0.70, p<0.001) than those with normal ventilatory efficiency. Older age (60-69 years, OR 3.10 (95% CI 1.33 to 7.21), p=0.009 and 70-80 years, OR 6.48 (95% CI 2.56 to 16.43), p<0.001 vs 40-49 years) and smoking (former, OR 3.19 (95% CI 1.29 to 7.86), p=0.012; current, OR 4.27 (95% CI 1.78 to 10.24), p=0.001 vs never) were identified as high risk factors of impaired ventilatory efficiency.
Conclusions:
Impaired ventilatory efficiency was associated with poorer respiratory characteristics. Longitudinal studies are warranted to explore the progression of individuals with impaired ventilatory efficiency.
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