Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) scales are tools of great interest in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). While currently available therapeutic measures do not noticeably improve lung function parameters, they can lead to an improvement of symptoms refl ected in patient quality of life. HRQOL scales could therefore be used to justify a particular treatment even in the absence o...

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is defined by persistent airflow limitation that is usually progressive [1], and its severity has long been classified using forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) % predicted. Although levels of FEV1 were often reported to predict mortality, the observation that other pulmonary and extrapulmonary variables also predicted mortality led to the develop...

BACKGROUND Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a major cause of morbidity in the elderly population. COPD leads to a reduced health-related quality of life (HRQL), but the factors which contribute to this are not well understood. A better understanding of the factors which determine HRQL should lead to an improved care for such patients. OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Anxiety and depression are common in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The degree of lung function may not explain anxiety and depression. The aim of our study was to assess the psychological aspects of COPD, to test the BODE index (a composite score of body mass, obstruction, dyspnea and exercise capacity), and to evaluate the association between a...

We analyze a sample of multiple-exoplanet systems which contain at least 3 transiting planets detected by the Kepler mission (‘Kepler multiples’). We use a generalized Titius-Bode relation to predict the periods of 228 additional planets in 151 of these Kepler multiples. These Titius-Bode-based predictions suggest that there are, on average, 2± 1 planets in the habitable zone of each star. We e...

OBJECTIVE The present study attempted to determine whether patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) get the minimum daily amount of physical activity recommended in the guidelines established by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), as well as to characterize the consequences of noncompliance with those guidelines. METHODS This study involved 23 patients (median ag...

BACKGROUND Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is not only characterized by chronic airflow limitation, but is also a systemic disease. There is no information about alterations in right ventricle (RV) functions precipitated by systemic manifestations of COPD. OBJECTIVES We aimed to evaluate the relationship between the BODE (body mass index, airflow obstruction, dyspnea, and exercis...

BACKGROUND Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is characterized by an incompletely reversible limitation in airflow. A physiological variable--the forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1)--is often used to grade the severity of COPD. However, patients with COPD have systemic manifestations that are not reflected by the FEV1. We hypothesized that a multidimensional grading system t...

BACKGROUND Prediction of future exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a major concern for long-term management of this disease. AIM To determine which of three multidimensional assessment systems (the body mass index, obstruction, dyspnea, and exercise capacity [BODE] index; dyspnea, obstruction, smoking, exacerbations [DOSE] index; or age, dyspnea, obstruction [ADO...

The present study aimed to measure physical activity in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) to: 1) identify the disease stage at which physical activity becomes limited; 2) investigate the relationship of clinical characteristics with physical activity; 3) evaluate the predictive power of clinical characteristics identifying very inactive patients; and 4) analyse the reli...