Relationship between endurance capacity and Quality of Life in hemiplegic patients

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We examined the relation fitness level and QOL (quality of life) in hemiplegic patients using incremental exercise testing and a questionnaire about QOL.The subjects were sixty-nine adult patients with hemiplegia who could do ADL (activities of daily living) independently. They were outpatients and could walk by themselves with canes.In the incremental exercise tests, the correlation between oxygen consumption (V^^・O2) and heart rate (HR) was very high. So incremental exercise testing for hemiplegic patients was considered to assess the same properties of exercise capacity as for healthy persons. Predicted maximum V^^・O2 (V^^・O2max) was lower in hemiplegic patients than in sound elderly persons. Patients with motor function at Brunnstrom stage III and patients over seventy years of age had significantly lower V^^・O2 max than patients with greater motor function or those seventy years old or below. The relationship between excercies load and V^^・O2 could be predicted by V^^・O2=4.3kgm+124.3+3.5BW (ml/min) (6kgm*1W,BW=Body weight). There was no sttistically significant difference between predicted V^^・O2 and actual V^^・O2, so use of this formula was considered suitable for clinical situations.The correlation between the total score of QOL and that of APDL (activities parallel to daily living) as an operational index of QOL was very high. Correlation was also found between satisfaction portion of the APDL assessment and predicted V^^・O2max. The mobility portion of the APDL assessment was influenced by physical fitness of the hemiplegic patient, sugessting that development of fitness is important for development of QOL.