Exertional multidimensional dyspnoea predicts exacerbation in stable outpatients with COPD

a) Multidimensional Dyspnea Profile at the end of exercise. Data are presented as mean±sem. b) Receiver operator characteristic plots for predicting exacerbation within 1 year. Area under the curve for breathing discomfort, mental breathing effort, fear and forced expiratory volume in 1s (FEV_1­) % of predicted are 0.69 (p=0.28), 0.70 (p=0.02), 0.67 (p=0.44), and 0.50 (p=0.95), respectively. c) Kaplan–Meier plots from testing to exacerbation time for patients with respiratory discomfort ≥5 after a 3-min stepping exercise and those with breathing discomfort <5. E: patients with COPD who had exacerbations within 1 year; NE: patients with COPD who had no exacerbations within 1 year. *: p<0.05.