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The 6-min walking distance (6MWD) is often used to assess prognosis in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) patients. Whether or not changes in arterial oxygen saturation (SpOAmbispective study that includes 137 patients with PAH: 38 idiopathic/heritable (i/h PAH), 42 with connective tissue disease (CTD-PAH), 34 with porto-pulmonary hypertension (PoPH), 21 with HIV-associated PAH and 2 with pulmonary venous occlusive disease (PVOD). Patients were characterized and, treated according to international recommendations, and were followed-up for 5 years. To integrate SpO(1) during follow-up, 40 patients died (29.2%); (2) results confirmed the prognostic value of the 6MWD (AUC 0.913 [IQR 0.868-0.958]; p 0.0001), original DDR (AUC 0.923 [0.881-0.966]; p 0.001), New DDR (AUC 0.917 [0.872-0.961], p 0.001), and DSP (AUC 0.914 [0.869-0.959], p 0.001); and, (3) neither the original or new DDR or DSP added significant prognostic value to 6MWD in these patients.Consideration of three different composite indices of arterial oxygenation changes during exercise does not add prognostic value to that of the 6MWD in patients with PAH.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is an entity with a heterogeneous presentation. For this reason, attempts have been made to characterize different phenotypes and endotypes to enable a more individualized approach. The aim of the Biomarkers in COPD (BIOMEPOC) project is to identify useful biomarkers in blood to improve the characterization of patients. Clinical data and blood samples from a group of patients and healthy controls will be analyzed. The project will consist of an exploration phase and a validation phase. Analytical parameters in blood will be determined using standard techniques and certain 'omics' (transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics). The former will be hypothesis-driven, whereas the latter will be exploratory. Finally, a multilevel analysis will be conducted. Currently, 269 patients and 83 controls have been recruited, and sample processing is beginning. Our hope is to use the results to identify new biomarkers that, alone or combined, will allow a better characterization of patients.