title: Reference values for cardiopulmonary exercise testing in healthy adults: a systematic review.
abstract: Reference values (RV) for cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) provide the comparative basis for answering important questions concerning the normality of exercise response in patients and significantly impacts the clinical decision-making process. The aim of this study is to systematically review the literature on RV for CPET in healthy adults. A secondary aim is to make appropriate recommendations for the practical use of RV for CPET. Systematic searches of MEDLINE, EMBASE and PEDro databases up to March 2014 were performed. In the last 30 years, 35 studies with CPET RV were published. There is no single set of ideal RV; characteristics of each population are too diverse to pool the data in a single equation. Therefore, each exercise laboratory must select appropriate sets of RV that best reflect the characteristics of the population/patient tested, and equipment and methodology utilized.
authors.affiliation: University Utrecht and University Medical Center Utrecht, Master Clinical Health Sciences, Program in Physical Therapy Science, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Davy
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Paap
authors.forename: Tim
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Takken
mesh_terms: D015444:Exercise; D005080:Exercise Test; D006801:Humans; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology*; D010101:Oxygen Consumption / Q000502:physiology*; D012016:Reference Values; D012737:Sex Factors
keywords: cardiopulmonary exercise testing; exercise physiology; healthy adults; maximal oxygen consumption; reference values