Practical approaches to exercise testing

Abstract

Today, regular physical activity is considered to be an important part of the treatment for many CVDs. Exercise tests are used to determine exercise tolerance and to assess cardiovascular risk. This review outlines the most common methods for assessing exercise tolerance (cycloergometric test and treadmill tests) that have a high diagnostic and prognostic value and allow the specialists to draw reliable conclusions about the patient’s physical activity. The results of stress tests are of great importance in determining further tactics of patient’s management with cardiovascular pathology. Attention is also paid to the issues of cardiopulmonary stress test, which is the most reliable research method, according to the latest international recommendations. However, it is associated with difficulties in conducting and interpreting the research results. The feasibility and effectiveness of tests with the exclusion of the pulmonary component in cardiac patients have been shown for widespread use. A systematic literature search was carried out in databases Medline, Scopus, Web of Science, and Elibrary.