Abstract
Some guidelines recommend stopping 6-minute walk test (6MWT) if arterial oxygen saturation (SaO2) <85% as safety criteria. Our aim was to analyze the SaO2 response <85% during 6MWT and its relation with clinical and symptomatic outcomes.
Methods: Retrospectively, we analyzed 6MWT from two respiratory medicine services from tertiary hospitals: Hospital del Mar and Hospital Clínic, Spain, from 2006 to 2010. They did not stop 6MWT using SaO2<85% criteria. We analyzed the data in 4 groups according SaO2.
Results: 796 patients (68±10 years) were analyzed. The results of ANOVA are:
Only 2 (0.5%) patients showed complications (leg pain and leg paresthesias) within groups (p=0.43). Few patients stopped during 6MWT in all groups (p=0.15).
Conclusions: Patients with SaO2<85% during 6MWT showed less distance walked and poor functional parameters. However, this group did not show differences neither in number of patients who stopped during the test nor presence of clinical complications during and after 6MWT. Our results confirm there are not critical effects in this kind of patients to stop the test using the SaO2<85% criteria.
- © 2011 ERS