The Effect of Exercise on Arterial Blood Gases in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

ABSTRACT It is important in the present day to ensure that the social activities of COPD patients are carried out without any problem as part of the goals of approach to and treatment of COPD patients for minimizing both labor loss and financial losses. The use of socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of COPD patients as a tool during their assessment is increasing in importance. Hence, the purpose of the present study was to examine the impact of exercise on blood gases in COPD patients. A total of 378 patients with ages ranging between 45 and 82 who have applied to the pulmonary diseases polyclinic and emergency of our hospital or who have been admitted to the clinic during March 2019 and December 2019 were included in this prospective study. All of the 160 patients with emphysema and 218 patients with chronic bronchitis were stable. Cases with accompanying diseases other than respiratory system disorders (cardiac, diabetes mellitus etc.) and patients in acute attack were excluded from the study. Of our cases, 180 (47.62 %) were female and 198 (52.38 %) were male with an age average of 60.95+5.7. End of exercise respiratory rate increase, (p:0.003), PaO2 increase (p:0.008), PaCO2 increase (p:0.005) and pH decrease (p:0.009) were observed to be statistically significant in chronic bronchitis predominant patients. End of exercise respiratory rate increase (p:0.006) along with decreases in pH (p:0.008) and PaO2 (p:0.009) were observed to be statistically significant in emphysema predominant patients. Exercise training is important for the rehabilitation of COPD patients and increases their quality of life. Hence, we concluded that that it may be beneficial to determine the end of exercise blood gases of stable COPD patients for planning their residential treatment. Keywords: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, exercise, arterial blood gas