ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on some cardiovascular and metabolic aspects relevant to exercise stress testing in healthy persons as well as in some common patient groups before initiating physical training. The objective of an exercise test is to examine the capacity of the oxygen delivery system and its limitations. In healthy persons cardiorespiratory responses to graded exercise can be evaluated on the basis of several physiological and metabolic parameters. Increased heart rate as such or in relation to progressively increasing work load has most widely been used when assessing physical performance capacity. In coronary heart disease the typical features during exercise testing are symptoms and ST-T changes in ECG. In obese persons oxygen consumption during submaximal exercise levels tends to be higher both on treadmill and bicycle as compared to normal weight subjects, although only near or at the maximal level is the difference most distinct. Exercise tests are performed either for healthy, asymptomatic, or diseased persons.
