Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine whether patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) would report similar ratings of dyspnea at the same relative exercise intensity after participation in pulmonary rehabilitation.
Methods: Forty-two patients with COPD performed incremental cardiopulmonary exercise testing before and after completion of a 6-wk exercise-training program. Subjects rated dyspnea on the 0-10 category-ratio (CR-10) scale each minute of the exercise test.
Results: Both responders (21 patients who exhibited an increase in [OV0312]O(2peak) after pulmonary rehabilitation) and nonresponders (21 patients who had no increase in [OV0312]O(2peak)) reported slightly lower ratings of dyspnea ( approximately 0.5 on the CR-10 scale) at the same relative (50% and 75% of [OV0312]O(2peak)) exercise intensities. These changes in dyspnea ratings after pulmonary rehabilitation were not significantly different between responders and nonresponders.
Conclusion: The study suggests that patients with COPD can use the same ratings of dyspnea to monitor training at the same relative exercise intensity whether they achieve a physiological training response or not.