Feasibility of mobile cardiopulmonary exercise testing.
OBJECTIVE
Evaluation of cardiopulmonary capacity and work ability is often done by cardiopulmonary exercise testing under laboratory conditions. Mobile CPET devices allow measurements under specific real-life conditions, i.e.: at the patient's workplace. We investigated the feasibility and validity of mobile CPET in healthy controls.


METHODS
We compared oxygen uptake measured by mobile CPET (MCPET) with that by standard CPET (LCPET), and we compared oxygen uptake with markers of self-reported physical exhaustion. Twenty-two healthy subjects (15 male, 21-49 years) underwent LCPET and 6 outdoors 12-min running tests (MCPETs) at different intensities. Physical exhaustion and the time they could continue exercising (T(EX)) was reported for each level. Standard descriptive statistics were applied.


RESULTS
Of 132 MCPETs, performed in 22 subjects, 128 (97%) were of suitable quality. The facemask was well tolerated and nobody felt uncomfortable at any time. On average VO2 [peak] was 21% (SD 9%) higher with MCPET compared to LCPET (median 3.60, range [2.22, 5.14] versus median 2.63, range [1.67, 4.16] L*min(-1)), but showed a strong correlation (r2 = 0.90). MCPET-VO2 at steady state correlated with subjectively rated physical exhaustion, and with TEX.


CONCLUSIONS
Out-of-laboratory MCPET was feasible, correlated with parameters of standard CPET, and correlated with markers of physical exhaustion. After validation in patients, MCPET could be used for a rational evaluation of cardiopulmonary capacity and work ability in selected patients.
Attinger
Adrian
A
Pneumology, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
Tüller
Claudia
C
Souren
Tjeu
T
Tamm
Michael
M
Schindler
Christian
C
Brutsche
Martin H
MH
D000328:Adult; D001944:Breath Tests; D005080:Exercise Test / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D017079:Exercise Tolerance; D005221:Fatigue / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018670:Monitoring, Ambulatory / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D010101:Oxygen Consumption; D015203:Reproducibility of Results