Cardiopulmonary exercise test as an evaluation tool of respiratory symptoms

Objectives: Characterization of patients subjected to CPET, performed for clarification of disproportional symptomology to clinical evaluation. Methods: Retrospective study, with consultation of clinical records from patients that performed CPET from 2011-2013. Selected patients with suspected or confirmed diagnosis of respiratory pathology and had performed CPET due to symptoms in effort (dyspnea) disproportional to their evaluation at rest. Results: 84 patients were included (from 339 CPET performed during the study period), majority of which female (60,7%), with age average of 50,3±14,0 years. In 21,4% of patients there was no previous diagnostic, being refered as "dyspnea in study"; the rest of the cohort the following diagnostics prevailed: Sarcoidoisis in 15,5%; Asthma and Late Effects of Tuberculosis both of with 7,1% and CPOD in 6,0%. Lung function test (LFT) showed changes in 61,9% of patients, with diminished diffusing capacity being the most frequent abnormality (21,4%), followed by obstructive abnormality (20,2%) and small airway disease (10,7%). CPET results: cardiovascular limitation (25,5%), respiratory limitation (38,3%), gas exchange limitation (14,9%) and concomitant alterations in 21,3%. Crossing the results from CPET and LFT we verified that patients with normal LFT had alterations in CPET in 31,3%. Cases with altered LFT, CPET showed aditional alterations in 15,4%. Conclusion: To be mentioned the great number deconditioning cases found as cause of symptomology, not often equationed. We stress the usefulness of CPET in cases where there was disagreement between symptomology and findings at rest. CET revealed itself to be a very useful tool in the evalluation of unexplained symptomology.