Author(s)

Konstantinos Makanikas, Georgia Andreou^*, Filippos Vlachos

Department of Special Education, University of Thessaly, Argonafton & Filellinon, Volos, Greece.

Objective: The main aim of the present study is to evaluate the semantic language abilities of patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) compared to normal group. Secondly to examine the role of hypoxemia, hypercapnia and pulmonary parameters on language scores. Method: We assessed 100 COPD patients with the use of a comprehensive battery of neurocognitive tests standardized for the Greek population, examining semantic language abilities, namely the Boston Naming Test (BNT), the Picture Peabody Vocabulary Test (PPVT) and the Controlled Oral Word Fluency Test (COWAT). Results: The results revealed that although the overall performance of our group of patients was within normal range, it was statistically significant lower compared to normal distribution on all semantic language tests. Moreover, we found that the percentile of COPD patients that performed in the deficient range was significantly higher compared to normal distribution. Further analysis of pulmonary parameters showed that Forced Expiratory Volume in 1 sec (FEV₁, FEV₁%), Forced Vital Capacity (FVC, FVC%) and FEV₁/FVC were not correlated with patients’ performance on the language tests. Low Partial Pressure of Oxygen in blood oxygen levels (PaO₂) was found to be able to predict the performance of patients on BNT, PPVT and semantic verbal fluency test. Abnormally elevated Partial Pressure of Carbon Dioxide (PCaO₂) in blood were not found to be related to language dysfunctions. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that our group of COPD patients is more prone to present semantic language impairments compared to normal group while low blood oxygen levels were associated with reduced performance on BNT, PPVT and semantic verbal fluency tests.

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), Semantic Language Abilities, Hypoxemia, Hypercapnia

Makanikas, K. , Andreou, G. and Vlachos, F. (2019) Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and Semantic Language Abilities. Journal of Behavioral and Brain Science, 9, 130-143. doi: 10.4236/jbbs.2019.93011.