Risco de exacerbação e capacidade funcional de pacientes com DPOC em tratamento fisioterapêutico: estudo longitudinal

Abstract

The thesis consisted of two studies described below. Study I, which aimed to determine the exacerbation predictors, alone or in interaction, in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in physiotherapeutic treatment over six months. Were evaluated through three periods of assessment over six months regarding the occurrence of acute exacerbation, body mass index (BMI), fat-free mass (FFM), fat-free mass index, forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1), dyspnea, walked distance (WD) in the 6-minute walking test (6MWT) and grip strength. When applying Cox settings with each separately covariates, showed 5% significance only for the WD in the 6MWT (p= 0.02), which demonstrated interaction with BMI (p= 0.01) and also with the FFM (p= 0.01). The comparison of the three periods of assessment on the covariates measured showed a significant difference only for WD between evaluations of the 3rd and 6th month. Over six months of follow-up in patients with COPD can be observed that the WD in the 6MWT is a predictor in the risk of exacerbation, however depends on the covariates BMI and FFM. Following was developed the study II that aimed to analyze if there is influence of body weight, BMI, body composition, dyspnea, grip strength and tolerance to exertion in the occurrence of exacerbation during 12 months of follow-up of patients with COPD who underwent a physical training program developed or not the exacerbation. The patients were distributed in two groups, (Exacerbation Group EG, n = 29; Exacerbation Not Group - ENG, n = 34). The Mann-Whitney test was used for comparison between groups, the Friedman test (post-hoc Dunn) to comparison of evaluations and the logistic regression analysis, with a significance level of p < 0.05. There is significant difference between the groups with regard to age and WD in the 6MWT. The WD was reduced in 6, 9 and 12 month revaluation compared to assessment and 3 months for the EG. Logistic regression analysis showed a significant interaction between the lean body mass and the WD, BMI with the lean body mass and the BMI with the WD, this and the isolated dyspnea, and lean body mass with body weight. It is the importance of involving several variables along the follow-up of patients with COPD in physical therapy programs in an attempt to prevent the occurrence of exacerbations or reduce the chance of the same occurred. In addition, patients older and with less tolerance to physical activity had a higher number of episodes of exacerbation, even being inserted in a physical therapy program of physical training.