Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Paneroni, Mara
• Vitacca, Michele
• Comini, Laura
• Salvi, Beatrice
• Saleri, Manuela
• Schena, Federico
• Venturelli, Massimo

Titel

Relationship between perceived and neuromuscular fatigue in COPD patients with chronic respiratory failure with long-term oxygen therapy: a cross-sectional study

Ist Teil von

• European journal of applied physiology, 2022-11, Vol.122 (11), p.2403-2416

Ort / Verlag

Berlin/Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg

Erscheinungsjahr

2022

Quelle

Springer Journals

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Purpose To evaluate perceived fatigue (PF) and neuromuscular fatigue (NMF) in patients with COPD and chronic respiratory failure (CRF) on long-term oxygen therapy (CRF-COPD group), and the relationships between PF, NMF, patient’s characteristics, comparing severe patients with COPD to patients without CRF (COPD group). Methods This cross-sectional study compared 19 CRF-COPD patients with 10 COPD patients attending a rehabilitation program. PF was determined by Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS), while dyspnea by the Barthel Dyspnea Index (BDI). We assessed quadriceps NMF via electrical nerve stimulation during and following a Maximal Voluntary Contraction (MVC) detecting changes after a Constant Workload Cycling Test (CWCT) at 80% of the peak power output at exhaustion. Results CRF-COPD patients showed higher PF (+ 1.79 of FSS score, p  = 0.0052) and dyspnea (+ 21.03 of BDI score, p  = 0.0023) than COPD patients. After the fatiguing task and normalization for the total work, there was a similar decrease in the MVC (CRF-COPD −1.5 ± 2.4 vs COPD −1.1 ± 1.2% baseline kJ −1 , p  = 0.5819), in the potentiated resting twitch force (CRF-COPD −2.8 ± 4.7 vs COPD −2.0 ± 3.3% baseline kJ −1 , p  = 0.7481) and in the maximal voluntary activation (CRF-COPD −0.1 ± 3.9 vs COPD −0.9 ± 1.2 −2.0 ± 3.3% baseline kJ −1 , p  = 0.4354). FSS and BDI were closely related ( R  = 0.5735, p  = 0.0011), while no correlation between PF and NMF was found. Conclusion Patients with CRF-COPD develop higher levels of perceived fatigue and dyspnea than patients with COPD; while neuromuscular fatigue is similar, suggesting a mismatch between symptoms and neuromuscular dysfunction.