Exercise respiratory cycle time components in patients with emphysema

Background. We have recently demonstrated that in patients with COPD the severity of emphysema (E) measured by high resolution computed tomography (HRCT) correlated with: ratio VTpeak/FEV1; VE/VCO2 slope and PETCO2 values at peak exercise. The aim of this study was to further investigate if exercise respiratory cycle time components correlated with % of E measured by HRCT. Method. Twelve patients (age = 65 ± 8 yrs; FEV1 = 55 ± 17%pred) with moderate to severe E (quantified by lung HRCT as % voxels Moreover, by dividing the patients in two groups based on the % of E (>50% and