Keywords: COPD, physical performance, exercise tests, peripheral muscle function
 

"Physical performance measures in patients with COPD"

Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) often experience impairments in their physical performance. Therefore, it is clinically relevant to assess those limitations timely and extensively using exercise tests. This thesis investigated the validity, feasibility, and responsiveness of commonly used physical performance tests in patients with COPD.

The studies described in this thesis are performed in patients with COPD who participated in a pulmonary rehabilitation program in the Netherlands. First, this thesis demonstrates that the Short Physical Performance Battery is a valid and responsive outcome measure for functional performance in patients with COPD. Furthermore, exercise test outcomes are not related to patient-reported outcomes in patients with COPD. The large variability observed in the Endurance Shuttle Walk Test time can only be partly explained by the clinical outcome measures assessed in the study. The volitional isokinetic quadriceps test is feasible and responsive in patients with COPD and the outcomes correlate with volitional isometric quadriceps function. However, neither is significantly related to electrical-induced quadriceps function.

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