Patients hospitalized for community-acquired pneumonia present reduced functional performance

BACKGROUND: Symptoms of fatigue and dyspnea, treatment with oral corticosteroids, high circulating levels of cytokines, and oxidant/antioxidant imbalance in patients hospitalized with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) could affect the patients' exercise tolerance and peripheral muscle strength (PMS). OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the functional capacity (FC) of patients hospitalized for CAP and to correlate the FC with length of hospital stay. METHOD: We prospectively evaluated 45 patients (49±16 years; CAP group) and 20 healthy subjects (53±17 years; control group). They were randomized t...