Role of Spiroergometry in Clinical Exercise Testing

Abstract

Exercise testing is widely used for examination of healthy and diseased subjects. Indications for exercise testing range from diagnosis of special diseases to evaluation of functional capacity in athletes, normals, and patients (Table 1). In addition, exercise testing is needed to get objective information on the patient’s status. It is well-established that subjective symptoms and signs, including New York Heart Association (NYHA) classification do not necessarily correlate with parameters obtained during exercise testing. This holds true for patients with cardiomyopathy (Fig. 1) and valvular heart disease as well [15, 18, 25]. Further, hemodynamics at rest do not predict hemodynamic response during exercise. These latter findings are of utmost significance for those studies using interventional procedures such as pharmacotherapy or revascularization (Table 1).