Ventilatory response and arterial potassium concentration during incremental exercise in patients with chronic airways obstruction

The relationship of ventilation response (VE) to arterial potassium concentration (K+) during ramp incremental exercise was assessed in nine patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and in 10 healthy subjects. For COPD patients the maximum oxygen uptake (VOmax) was 19.6 +/- 3.8 ml kg-1 min-1 (+/- SD), and percentage of forced expired volume at 1 s (% FEV1) was 47.8 +/- 10.4%. In healthy subjects, VO2max was 44.4 +/- 7.0 ml kg-1 min-1 and FEV1 was 89.7 +/- 7.4%. Breath-by-breath determinations for VE, oxygen uptake (VO2) and carbon dioxide output (VCO2), as well as determinations for K+, partial pressure of oxygen (PO2), partial pressure of carbon dioxide (PCO2), pH and lactate in arterial blood were performed during a workout on an exercise bicycle at a ramp function work rate of 20 W min-1, preceded by a 40 min warm-up period. The major findings in the present study are: (1) that there is a linear relation between ventilation and arterial K+ concentration during ramp exercise in both healthy subjects and COPD patients; (2) that the slope of the VE-K+ relationship is significantly lower in COPD patients (16.2 +/- 7.3 l min-1 mM-1) than in normal subjects (37.4 +/- 6.9 l min-1 mM-1, P less than 0.01); and, (3) that the slope of the VE-K+ relationship is significantly related to the ability to ventilate during maximal exercise in both healthy subjects and COPD patients (P less than 0.05). It is thought that the significantly reduced slope of the VE-K+ relationship in the COPD patients could be interpreted as a reduced sensitivity to the stimulus and/or as a mechanical impairment of the ventilation.