Optimizing exercise performance with a continuously paced shuttle walk test for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

BACKGROUND: A continuously paced shuttle walk test (SWTp) was developed to test the hypothesis that speed and rhythm could be more optimally imposed by an easier-to-follow sound stimulus at every step. The objective of this study was to assess the reproducibility of the SWTp and to compare the performance of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) on the conventional and optimally paced forms of the test. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The walk test results of 24 COPD patients were studied. All patients completed 2 SWTp sessions and a conventional SWT in random order, after an initial practice test for each. A portable device was used to measure peak oxygen uptake (VO2) in 6 patients. RESULTS: The intraclass correlation coefficient (Cronbach's alpha) was 0.95 for the STWp. The Pearson correlation coefficient between distance walked and peak VO2, in the SWTp was 0.86 (P<02). Better performance was achieved during the SWTp (peak VO2, 3.30 mL/kg/min; P<01; distance walked, 32 In, P<001) than during the conventional SWT. The SWTp showed excellent reproducibility. CONCLUSIONS: COPD patients can achieve better performance with the stimuli provided in the SWTp than on the SWT.