Chest
Stair Climbing as an Indicator of Pulmonary Function
Section snippets
METHODS
Eighty-one male patients scheduled for pulmonary function testing were considered for inclusion in the study. Those who were physically unable or refused to perform the test were excluded from the study. Of the remainder, those who had inadequate tests (due to questionable effort, inability to understand directions or inability to perform) were also excluded. The remaining 70 patients made up the study population.
Baseline data, including pulse rate, blood pressure, respiratory rate, age,
RESULTS
A total of 70 patients with a mean age of 56.8±11.5 years (ranging from 21 years to 79 years) were studied. The average number of steps per second was 1.09±0.41 with a low of 0.19 and a high of 2.05. A subset of patients with abnormal tolerance to stair climbing became apparent during the course of the study. These patients stopped the stair climb for reasons other than shortness of breath or completion of the climb. There were complaints of angina, fear of angina, claudication, and fear of
DISCUSSION
When analyzing the data, one finds definite relationships between the number of steps climbed and the various parameters which have been used in the past as predictors of post-thoracotomy outcome. Since FEV1 is used as a major predictor, it was more closely examined than other parameters. If a patient is unable to complete three flights of stairs (76 steps), the FEV1 will be less than 1.70 L. This held true in 86 percent of the study patients if the patients who stopped for nonpulmonary
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Special thanks to Mildred Corbett and Celeste Reynolds for their assistance in the pulmonary function testing.
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Manuscript received December 15; revision accepted April 6.