+44 330 818 7254Rachel de Aguiar Cassiani, Carla Manfredi dos Santos, José Antonio Baddini Martinez, *Roberto Oliveira Dantas
Patients with chronic pulmonary diseases may have difficulties with breathing during meals. Our objective in this investigation was to evaluate oxygen saturation and heart rate during a meal in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. We evaluated 16 patients with a diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in a stable phase of the disease and 15 healthy volunteers. The oxygen saturation and heart rate were measured by pulse oximetry for 10 minutes before the ingestion of a solid meal with 1800 calories, during the ingestion, and 10 minutes after the ingestion. Mean oxygen saturation was always lower in patients than in the normal volunteers. Healthy volunteers had no significant change in mean oxygen saturation during the meal, but oxygen saturation decreased after the meal (p<0.001). In patients, mean oxygen saturation decreased during and after the meal compared to the results before the meal (p<0.01). Heart rate was always higher in patients compared with volunteers. In both groups, heart rate was higher during and after the meal compared with the values before the meal (p<0.01), with the same increase in patients and volunteers. We conclude that eat causes a decrease in oxygen saturation in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
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