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Background: The six-minute walk test (6MWT) is considered to be a simple and inexpensive tool for the assessment of functional tolerance of submaximal effort. The aim of this work was 1) to background the nonlinear nature of the energy expenditure process due to physical activity, 2) to compare the results/scores of the submaximal treadmill exercise test and those of 6MWT in pulmonary patients and 3) to develop nonlinear mathematical models relating the two. Methods: The study group included patients with the COPD. All patients were subjected to a submaximal exercise test and a 6MWT. To develop an optimal mathematical solution and compare the results of the exercise test and the 6MWT, the least squares and genetic algorithms were employed to estimate parameters of polynomial expansion and piecewise linear models. Results: Mathematical analysis enabled to construct nonlinear models for estimating the MET result of submaximal exercise test based on average walk velocity (or distance) in the 6MWT. Conclusions: Submaximal effort tolerance in COPD patients can be effectively estimated from new, rehabilitation-oriented, nonlinear models based on the generalized MET concept and the 6MWT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. The aim of the research was to assess the influence of complex respiration physiotherapy on pulmonary ventilation activity and physical efficiency in patients during an acute stage of COPD. Material and methods. The research material included 50 patients divided into two groups: group I -- test group -- included patients during the acute stage of COPD; group II -- control group -- consisted of patients during the stable stage of COPD. A selection of pulmonary ventilation activity indexes such as FVC, FEV1, PEF, energy expenditure, measured in MET, based on the 6-minute walk test, subjective perception of dyspnea measured on Borg scale both before and after complex physiotherapy were analysed in the course of research. Results. The FVC and PEF indexes analysis within group I pointed out statistically significant improvement (p<0.05). The increase in FEV1 was not of statistic significance. Within group II statistically significant improvement in all parameters was observed (p<0.05). The analysis of 6-minute-walk test showed a bigger increase in the distance covered by patients with acute stages of COPD. A statistically significant decrease in both static and effort dyspnea (p<0.05) was observed in both groups. Conclusions. A significant discrepancy in the physiotherapy results was observed between group I and group II. The acute stage of COPD hinders the possibility of achieving the improvement in tested indexes, possible in the group of patients during a stable stage of COPD. The increase in both the 6-minute walk test distance and energy expenditure measured in the tests clearly proves the complex physiotherapy effective [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An abstract of the article "WALK TEST IN THE PROCESS OF QUALIFYING CARDIOLOGICAL AND PULMONOLOGICAL PATIENTS FOR PHYSIOTHERAPY," by Jacek Łuniewski, Jan Szczegielniak, and Katarzyna Bogacz is presented.