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Medical Rehabilitation - quarterly journal
Volume 14 year 2010, Issue number 1
Medical Rehabilitation 2010; 14(1): 30-42
Tests of the functional performance of patients with COPD: A proposal for application of the Expanded Timed ‘Get Up and Go Test’ (ETGUG)
Testy sprawności czynnościowej chorych z POChP – propozycja zastosowania Wydłużonego Testu „Wstań i Idź” (ETGUG)
Janusz Bromboszcz 1,2, Tomasz Włoch 1
1 Department of Rehabilitation, Academy of Physical Education in Cracow, Poland
2 Department of Physiotherapy, Higher School of Administration, Bielsko–Biała, Poland
Key words
COPD, functional performance, physical activity, functional test, diagnosis, rehabilitation
Abstract
The testing of physical performance is not a common practice in the treatment of patients with COPD. Only a 6-minute walking test (6MWT) is more often used in the diagnosis and evaluation of the results of rehabilitation conducted in specialist pulmonary clinics. The use of other tests either directly or indirectly assessing physical performance is generally limited to research units. The state of knowledge about the conditioning and consequences of COPD point to the necessity of evaluating physical performance, while in the case of conducting pulmonary rehabilitation it should constitute a routine procedure. Without doubt the 6MWT and other tests presented in the paper should be widely used, though there exists the need to find other activity tests easier to conduct amongst patients with an advanced form of COPD, who have difficulty with effectively carrying out the 6MWT. An interesting proposition appears to be in this case Expanded Timed ‘Get Up and Go Test’ (ETGUG) which has previously not been used with COPD patients. The possibility of relating the results to the strength and endurance of the muscles of the lower limbs, to the ability of maintaining balance as well as physical activity typical for everyday life, corresponds to the pathological changes and limitations encountered in COPD. Research into the TUG test shows that it may be used in patients with COPD, however the extremely short walking distance in this test limits the possibility for result interpretation to an evaluation of the ability to stand from a seated position and to sit as well as the ability to maintain balance. It appears that a 20 metre walking distance for the ETGUG test would be sufficient to assess the walking abilities of patients with COPD, particularly for groups with advanced stages III and IV of the disease according to GOLD. Hence it is necessary to examine the ETGUG test in relation to its validity, reliability and responsiveness for patients with COPD.