ABSTRACT
Introduction: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease(COPD) is a major health problem globally. Spirometry is theGold standard for the diagnosis of COPD and it also gradesit’s severity. 6MWT is a simple reproducible test to assess thepatient’s functional capacity. It is of help in management andprediction of prognosis. Objective: This study was done to findcorrelation between 6MWT results with patient’s clinical andspirometric parameters. The study also assessed if 6 minutewalk distance (6MWD) can be an alternative to spirometry inpredicting severity of COPD in resource poor setup.Material and methods: This was a hospital based crosssectional study. 60 consecutive confirmed patients of COPD(by GOLD guidelines) were included in the study afterapplying inclusion and exclusion criteria. Severity wasassessed by pre and post-bronchodilator spirometry test. Thiswas followed by 6MWT as per ATS guidelines. 6MWD wasrecorded and % predicted 6MWD was also calculated. Resultsof 6MWT were correlated with spirometric and clinicalparameters of the patients.Results: 6MWD had statistically significant (p <.05) positivecorrelation with following parameters: Height, FEV1, %predicted FEV1, FVC, FEV1/FVC and PEFR. Correlationwith age, weight and BMI was not significant. % 6MWDsignificantly correlated with Height, FEV1, % predictedFEV1, FVC and PEFR. Distances in meters walked bydifferent severity groups were as follows: Mild: 410 + 15;Moderate: 367.66 + 57.71; Severe: 364.60 + 62.91 and Verysevere: 281.21 + 55.99. On one way analysis of variance(ANOVA) these differences were found significant (p <.01)Conclusion: In this study 6MWD and percent 6MWD hadsignificant positive correlation with patients’ parameters(Height, FEV1, %FEV1, FVC and PEFR). The severity ofCOPD may be assessed with 6MWT.