Evaluation of a new treadmill exercise protocol.

Study objectives To confirm that a newly drafted treadmill exercise protocol designed on a theoretical basis to span a range of 0 to 200 W with approximately 25-W increments by alteration of either speed or grade from one stage to the next should correspond to a standard bicycle protocol consisting of 25-W steps. Design Randomized, crossover study to compare both exercise test modes. Study participants Twenty-one consecutive healthy volunteers. Interventions Subjects underwent both exercise tests until either exhaustion or completion of the respective protocol, and cardiopulmonary exercise parameters were assessed during either of them. For comparison, correlation coefficients (r) were calculated. Results Exercise tolerance time was 9% higher on the treadmill (p Conclusions There was an excellent correlation of the parameters with respect to both measured values at identical workloads and slopes of both protocols, thus enabling comparability of treadmill and bicycle ergometry. Due to its practical handling, the new protocol may facilitate acceptance, especially when used for elderly or disabled patients.