Association between Emergency Visits with Acute Exacerbation and Exercise Performance in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Objective: The relationship between acute exacerbation and exercise performance in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is unclear. The aim of this study was to compare exercise performance between patients with COPD who visited and did not visit an emergency department in the last year; we also aimed to investigate the correlation between frequency of emergency visits and exercise performance.
Methods: We recorded the number of emergency department visits of 206 COPD patients. The six-minute walk test, the modified Medical Research Council Dyspnea Scale, body plethysmographs, carbon monoxide diffusion tests, and arterial blood gas analysis were practiced.
Results: We had one hundred twenty seven participants visited an emergency department at least once in the last year. Exercise performance, dyspnea, pulmonary functions, and oxygenation were significantly poorer in those patients (p<0.05). The number of emergency department visits was correlated with exercise performance, dyspnea, oxygenation, forced expiratory volume in one second forced expiratory volume in one second/forced vital capacity, and carbon monoxide diffusion capacity (p<0.05).
Conclusion: Exercise performance was poor and negatively related to the frequency of emergency department visits in COPD patients. We concluded that exercise performance-enhancing implementations may contribute to reduce the frequency of emergency department visits.