Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing (CPET) is a powerful tool used in the clinical evaluation of individuals presenting with exertional symptoms with a range of respiratory and cardio-circulatory disorders. CPET uniquely provides useful information about the integrated functions of the metabolic, respiratory, cardiovascular, locomotor muscle and neuro-sensory systems during measured physiological stress. It permits accurate assessment of physiological impairment that underpins exertional symptoms and exercise intolerance in a given individual, thereby facilitating diagnosis and expeditious management.
Recent research has shown us that clinical CPET interpretation has advanced as a result of new refinements in measurement of exertional symptoms (e.g. breathlessness), non-invasive assessments of pulmonary gas exchange and of dynamic respiratory mechanics. These new approaches offer additional information beyond classic interpretational algorithms, which mainly rely on simple assessments of cardiac and ventilatory limitations at peak exercise. However, effective knowledge transfer has lagged behind innovative research developments and modern CPET approaches still remains vastly under-utilized in the clinical arena. Clinical exercise physiologists, including a number of eminent research leaders in the field, believe that it is now time to highlight the enhanced clinical utility of newer methodological and interpretive approaches to students and trainees in pulmonology and the exercise sciences and broadly to clinicians across multiple disciplines across the world who use CPET in clinical practice.
The proposed series should primarily be directed at learners and health care professionals who have interest in and access to CPET: it should be solidly grounded in the clinical domain. As such, this is not meant to be a complex series of articles replete with turgid narrative and algebraic formulae for specialists in physiology. The over-arching aim is translation of recent research knowledge into clinical practice.
Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing (CPET) is a powerful tool used in the clinical evaluation of individuals presenting with exertional symptoms with a range of respiratory and cardio-circulatory disorders. CPET uniquely provides useful information about the integrated functions of the metabolic, respiratory, cardiovascular, locomotor muscle and neuro-sensory systems during measured physiological stress. It permits accurate assessment of physiological impairment that underpins exertional symptoms and exercise intolerance in a given individual, thereby facilitating diagnosis and expeditious management.
Recent research has shown us that clinical CPET interpretation has advanced as a result of new refinements in measurement of exertional symptoms (e.g. breathlessness), non-invasive assessments of pulmonary gas exchange and of dynamic respiratory mechanics. These new approaches offer additional information beyond classic interpretational algorithms, which mainly rely on simple assessments of cardiac and ventilatory limitations at peak exercise. However, effective knowledge transfer has lagged behind innovative research developments and modern CPET approaches still remains vastly under-utilized in the clinical arena. Clinical exercise physiologists, including a number of eminent research leaders in the field, believe that it is now time to highlight the enhanced clinical utility of newer methodological and interpretive approaches to students and trainees in pulmonology and the exercise sciences and broadly to clinicians across multiple disciplines across the world who use CPET in clinical practice.
The proposed series should primarily be directed at learners and health care professionals who have interest in and access to CPET: it should be solidly grounded in the clinical domain. As such, this is not meant to be a complex series of articles replete with turgid narrative and algebraic formulae for specialists in physiology. The over-arching aim is translation of recent research knowledge into clinical practice.