Quality of life, oxygen desaturation and dyspnea during ADL in non-hypoxemic patients grouped according symptoms by combined COPD assessment

Background: The GOLD 2011 update recommends that the management and treatment of COPD should combine the impact of disease and future risk of exacerbations. Patients with COPD have poor quality of life (QoL) and may have limitation in their activities of daily living (ADL), which could be manifested as oxygen dessaturation (OD) and progressive dyspnea. Aim: To verify whether the most symptomatic patients have higher ADL limitations and impaired QoL compared with those less symptomatic. Methods: In a cross-sectional study and 44 non-hypoxemic patients with COPD (FEV 1 49±15%pred, SpO2≥90%, 69±8yrs) were categorized by GOLD and grouped by symptoms in B/D (n=19) and A/C (n=25). The modified Medical Research Council (mMRC), the London Chest Activity Daily Living (LCADL) scales and the Saint George9s Respiratory Questionnaire (SRGQ) were applied. In addition, an ADL simulation in appropriate laboratory was conducted. Results: There are no association between the patients9 symptoms and OD and dyspnea (X² test); however it was observed a higher prevalence of OD in B/D. In both groups there were patients who had any reports of dyspnea while performing the ADL. No correlation was found between dyspnea and OD variation. The B/D showed higher ADL dyspnea (LCADL %total =30%; p total =46%; p Conclusion: The combined COPD assessment was not efficient to determining the OD and dyspnea while performing ADL; however the symptoms is a factor that interfere in ADL and QoL, whereas more symptomatic patients had poorly QoL and greater reported dyspnea in ADL.