EVect of exercise induced hypoxaemia on myocardial repolarisation in severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Background—Exercise training is being promoted increasingly for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Many of these patients experience exercise related arterial desaturation but the clinical importance of these hypoxaemic episodes is not known. QTc dispersion is a marker of myocardial repolarisation abnormalities and there has been much interest in its role as a non-invasive predictor of cardiac arrhythmias and sudden death. However, little is known about the dynamic eVects that exercise and hypoxaemia have on QTc dispersion in patients with