Cardiopulmonary exercise testing, field testing, VO2, oxygen desaturation, mechanical limitation.
Typically ILD patients have exercise limitation, lowered functional capacity, dyspnoea and exercise-induced hypoxia. Patient's dyspnoea frequently worsens with exertion. Check out Anne E Holland's work. For quick access, here is her university webpage: http://www.latrobe.edu.au/health/about/staff/profile?uname=AHolland
About 20% of our pre lung transplant patients have various types of interstitial lung disease. We require the patients to participate in rehabilitation prior to transplantation and have found that high flow oxygen delivered through a partial non-rebreathing mask can improve their exercise tolerance. We typically will use 15 – 20 L of oxygen per minute. In severe ILD cases patients will have to do very short exercise bouts (1 – 5 minutes), rest and resume exercise. For example, a patient might be able to tolerate a total of 20 minutes of walking at a very slow speed on the treadmill by doing 5, 4 minute walking bouts. The patients rest long enough between each walking bout to allow their dyspnea and other symptoms to return to baseline.
Many patients with severe ILD report problems with chronic cough and we have found that administration of high flow oxygen during these coughing episodes usually stops coughing. The coughing bouts are usually seen during periods of significant O2-Hb desaturation.
Last year, we have published a paper on CPET in IPF in Repirology; first author Mart van der Plas.
Maybe this paper can answer most of your questions.
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