title: Reliability of peak cardiorespiratory responses in patients with moderate to severe traumatic brain injury.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine the test-retest reliability of acute physiologic responses in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI).
  
  
  METHODS
  Repeated measures within 1 week.
  
  
  METHODS
  Brain injury rehabilitation program and community rehabilitation hospital.
  
  
  METHODS
  Thirty-six inpatients or their legal guardians.
  
  
  METHODS
  Each patient performed a symptom-limited incremental cycle ergometer test to voluntary fatigue on 2 separate occasions within 1 week.
  
  
  METHODS
  Peak values of power output and cardiorespiratory responses measured with a metabolic cart interfaced with an electrocardiogram.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Intraclass correlations between the 2 trials were as follows: power output,.96; absolute oxygen uptake,.98; relative oxygen uptake,.97; heart rate,.82; ventilation rate,.96; and respiratory exchange ratio,.81. Bland-Altman plots showed that all data points were within the 95% confidence limits of the mean value of the 2 trials for each variable.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The reliability of the peak cardiorespiratory responses during non-weight-bearing exercise was high in patients with TBI in a controlled laboratory setting. Therefore, aerobic exercise programs can be accurately prescribed, and changes resulting from such interventions can be confidently evaluated in this population.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. yagesh.bhambhani@ualberta.ca
authors.forename: Yagesh
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Bhambhani
authors.forename: Gary
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Rowland
authors.forename: Mamdouh
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Farag
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001794:Blood Pressure; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000378:metabolism / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000534:rehabilitation; D004562:Electrocardiography; D016552:Ergometry; D005081:Exercise Therapy; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010101:Oxygen Consumption; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012720:Severity of Illness Index