Ninety-four patients were assessed for eligibility, and 30
patients were randomly assigned to groups. There were 3
protocol deviations in the CG because of either an acute COPD
exacerbation or other health problems. These patients were
retained to respect the intention-to-treat analysis (fig 1). There
was no difference between groups with regard to baseline
values of disease severity, functional capacity, anthropometric
data, or other baseline characteristics (table 1).