The Causes for the Premature Termination of Graded Exercise Test in a Cardiac Rehabilitation Setting

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To observe the termination point of graded exercise test (GXT) in cardiac patients and the reasons for the premature termination. METHOD: Cardiac patients taking GXT within 4 weeks after medical intervention or surgery were reviewed. If the GXT was stopped below the respiratory exchange ratio of 1.0, the subjects were chosen as the final study subjects and reviewed for the reason of premature termination. RESULTS: 115 out of a total of 715 subjects terminated GXT prematurely. There were 36 cardiovascular, and 79 non- cardiovascular reasons. The cardiovascular reasons were abnormal blood pressure response (19.1%), dysrhythmia (6.1%), ST abnormality (3.5%), vascular claudication (2.6%). The non-cardio-vascular reasons were subjective dyspnea (45.2%), lower limb fatigue (7.8%), hemiplegic gait (5.2%), arthralgia (3.5%), anxiety (3.5%), neurogenic claudication (2.6%), and abdominal pain (0.9%). The causes of dyspnea were low physical fitness (71.1%), concurrent chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (15.4%), poor motivation (5.8%), and secondary gain (7.7%). CONCLUSION: 16.1% of GXT were terminated prematurely and 68.7% of those for non-cardiovascular reasons. The main causes of the non-cardiovascular premature GXT were subjective dyspnea due to low physical fitness.