Cardiopulmonary Exercise Test Could Predict Mortality in Patients with Interstitial Lung Disease

Research Objectives: To identify the mortality predictors from cardiopulmonary exercise test in a group of Asian patients with interstitial lung disease

Design: A prospective observational study followed up for 32 months

Setting: A referral medical center

Participants: A total of 106 patients with definite diagnosis of interstitial lung disease confirmed by high-resolution computed tomography were enrolled in our study

Interventions: This is a prospective observational study without any special intervention. All participants received the cardiopulmonary exercise test.

Main Outcome Measures: Mortality

Results: Six variables from cardiopulmonary exercise test, namely peak oxygen consumption, oxygen pulse, peak end-tidal partial pressure of carbon dioxide, heart rate recovery 1 minute after cardiopulmonary exercise test, minute ventilation to carbon dioxide output slope and functional aerobic impairment, were identified to be significant predictors of mortality. We created a summed score, representing the number of variables beyond the cutoff values. The one-year survival rate of patients scored 6 in this summed score were only 25%, in contrast to 97.96% for patients scored 0-5.

Conclusions: If a cardiopulmonary exercise test is available for patients with interstitial lung disease, the summed score created in this study can provide a useful tool to screen these patients for their prognosis. Additional study recruiting more participants is required before the results to be used in clinical settings.

Author(s) Disclosures: All authors of this study declares no conflicts of interest