Source: Annual Congress 2010 - Exercise training: new groups, new methods and outcomes
Disease area: Airway diseases

Abstract

The six-minute walk test (6MWT) has been widely used to evaluate functional exercise capacity in people with COPD, however its ability to reflect exercise capacity in people with dust-related lung disease has not been evaluated. The aim of the study was to evaluate the relationship between exercise capacity measured by the 6MWT with exercise capacity measured by peak and endurance cycle tests. A secondary aim was to determine the relationships between 6MWT and lung function, health-related quality of life and physical activity. People with asbestos related pleural disease, asbestosis or silicosis performed two 6MWTs separated by 30 minutes with the better 6MWT used for analysis. On a separate day they performed peak and endurance cycle tests. Participants also performed spirometry, lung volumes and D_LCO, completed the St George‘s Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) and wore an activity monitor (SenseWear Pro3) for one week. 31 males completed the testing with a mean (SD) age of 71 (6) years, FVC 83 (18)%, FEV₁/FVC 68 (10)%, TLC 80 (17)% and D_LCO 56 (13)%. Participants demonstrated reduced exercise capacity measured by the 6MWT and peak cycle test (73% and 68% predicted respectively). The 6MWT correlated significantly with peak watts (r=0.68, p<0.01) but not with endurance cycle time. There were significant correlations between the 6MWT and D_LCO (r=0.64, p<0.01), all domains of the SGRQ, the strongest with ‘Activity‘ (r=-0.62, p<0.01), average daily steps (r=0.58, p<0.01) and average METs (r=0.60, p<0.01). The 6MWT may be a useful measure of exercise capacity in people with dust-related lung disease and correlates with quality of life and physical activity in this population.

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Citations should be made in the following way:
M. Dale, J. Alison, Z. McKeough, P. Munoz, P. Bye, P. Corte (Sydney, Australia). Six-minute walk test as a measure of exercise capacity in people with dust-related lung disease. Eur Respir J 2010; 36: Suppl. 54, 4883

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