The value of cardiopulmonary exercise testing in sarcoidosis

Normal pulmonary function tests (PTFs) do not always predict functional limitations during exercise in sarcoidosis. Cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) may facilitate in recognition of exercise intolerance in these patients. A relevant data in sarcoid patients are limited, including spirometry, DLCO and lung volumes and CPET using standard protocol, 83 sarcoid patients consecutively referred for evaluation of exertional dyspnea over a 3-year period. Patients were grouped according to their radiologiacal stages as Stage I: 43, Stages II-III: 31 and Stage IV: 9. VO2 peak was decreased (<84% predicted) in 53% of patients (Stage I:48%, Stages II-III: 52%, Stage IV: 78%); however; significant differences were noticed only between stages I and IV (p=0.0025) FEV1, FVC and TLC were midly impaired only in stage IV (72.44 plus/minus 28.00, 71.33 plus /minus 21.72, respectively), while DLCO was mild and moderately reduced in stages II-III and IV (72.68 plus/minus14.13 and 51.22 plus/minus 18.50 respectively) and differed significantly between all stages (I vs II-III: p=0.003, I vs IV: p=0.003 and II-III vs IV: p=0.009). Of note, significant correlations were found between VO2 peak and DLCO (p=0.0083), VE (p<0.0001), oxygen pulse (p<0.0001), lactate threshold (p<0.0001) and VT peak (p<0.0001). CPET may be considered useful in the evaluation of exercise intolerance in sarcoid patients with mild PFT abnormalities. Exercise limitation may be attributed to both ventilatory...
Source: European Respiratory Journal - Category: Respiratory Medicine Authors: Tags: 4.1 Clinical respiratory physiology, exercise and functional imaging Source Type: research