Prolonged hypoxemia after 10 min walking exercise in aged patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Although the behavior and factors of exercise tolerance have been studied during exercise in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), little attention has been paid to the after-effects of such activity. Arterial oxygen saturation (SaO2) was monitored during and after a 10 min walking exercise in aged patients with COPD. Neither baseline SaO2 nor mean SaO2 during exercise correlated to the 10 min walking distance. However, the recovery time of SaO2 to the baseline value shows significant correlation to the 10 min walking distance. Careful attention should be paid to prolonged hypoxemia after exercise in severe cases of COPD.