The inspiratory-to-total lung capacity ratio or ''inspiratory fraction'' (inspiratory capacity(IC)/total lung capacity (TLC)) may be functionally more representative than traditional indices of resting airflow limitation and lung hyperinflation in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).In the present retrospective study, a comparison was made of the individual performance of post-bronchodilator IC, IC/TLC and forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) in predicting a severely reduced peak oxygen uptake (V9O 2 ; ,60% predicted) in 44 COPD patients Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease stages II-III (post-bronchodilator FEV1 ranging from 31-79% pred).Patients with lower IC/TLC values (f0.28) showed increased lung volumes and reduced exercise capacity as compared with other subjects. Following a multiple linear regression analysis, only IC/TLC and FEV1 remained as independent predictors of V9O 2 (r 2 50.33). A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis revealed that an IC/TLC f0.28 had the highest specificity (89.6%), positive predictive value (80%) and overall accuracy (86.3%) in identifying patients with V9O 2 ,60% pred. In addition, the area under the ROC curve tended to be higher for IC/TLC than IC.In conclusion, post-bronchodilator total lung capacity-corrected inspiratory fraction provides useful information in addition to forced expiratory volume in one second and inspiratory capacity, to estimate the likelihood of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients to present with severely reduced maximal exercise capacity.

OBJECTIVE: Bixa orellana (annatto) is a natural pigment and food colorant that has been used for a variety of therapeutic purposes. It has been suggested that annatto could have the property of reducing blood glucose levels. However, most previous studies have demonstrated a hypoglycemic effect in non-diabetic animals. We evaluated the impact of annatto on blood glucose levels in an experimental model of diabetes mellitus. METHOD: Male Wistar rats were made diabetic by a single dose of60 mg/kg streptozotocin, injected intraperitoneally. One group of diabetic animals was treated with annatto, 540 mg/kg, administered via gavage. RESULTS: Annatto treated diabetic animals showed significantly lower blood sugar levels than untreated diabetics. The blood glucose curve showed that the hypoglycemic effect of annatto lasted for the twelve hours of evaluation. However, the most significant reduction on blood glucose took place two hours after drug administration. Annatto did not prevent the weight loss that is characteristic of decompensated diabetes mellitus. CONCLUSION: Annatto has a hypoglycemic property in rats with severe diabetes mellitus. Such an effect had a relatively long duration, but is more pronounced two hours after drug administration.